Post by Todd B on Nov 10, 2006 13:09:50 GMT -5
Article published Nov 10, 2006
SMCC has too much depth for Streaks
Ida may have lost more than a basketball game Thursday night.
www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061110/SPORTS/111100022
Emma LaBeau scored 20 points as St. Mary Catholic Central wore down the Blue Streaks 75-43 in a nonleague battle between two of the Region's best teams.
The game turned on a dime with just under three minutes remaining in the first quarter.
Ida led 7-2 and had outrebounded the Kestrels 8-1. But the Blue Streaks tried a long inbounds pass to Rachel Sepesy for a potential layup. The team's only senior chased the ball out of bounds, changed directions to avoid fans standing on the sideline and injured her left knee.
Without Sepesy, the Blue Streaks battled for a while but ultimately collapsed.
SMCC scored the next nine points and never trailed again. Ida stayed close until the final minutes of the second quarter when the Kestrels' depth began having an effect.
It was Senior Night at SMCC, and the Ketrels celebrated by winning their 14th straight game. But it was a junior - LaBeau - who had the hot hand. She scored her team's first 7 points and connected on four 3-pointers.
"I just felt good tonight with my shot," LaBeau said. "Being the point guard in my group (of five), I felt I had to get it going at the beginning."
The same teams met under similar circumstances last year when Ida snapped SMCC's 14-game winning streak. But coach Jon LaBeau only mentioned that once all week to his team.
"It was in my head," Emma LaBeau said. "But tonight was also our last home game, so I was playing more for my seniors than for revenge."
Senior Night was more like Senior Nightmare for the four 12th-graders on the court. Besides Sepesy's injury, SMCC's Bethany Cousino picked up three fouls in the first four minutes of the game and the Kestrels' Kelsey Langton and Katie Jordan were held scoreless.
SMCC didn't need any more scoring help though, as seven players combined on 12 three-pointers. Kelsey Huntoon had 14 points, 5-6 guard Haley Stein led her team with 9 rebounds and Alicia Flynn's 8 points included the play of the game, a turn-around 3-pointer that banged off the backboard just as the third quarter ended.
"My take is we wore them down," Jon LaBeau said. "We had about three runs of eight or nine points in a row. We didn't start out very well. I looked up and we had two points in the first six minutes. When we get in foul trouble early like we did, that's an indication that we're not ready to play. We're letting our hands do what our legs should do."
The coach didn't consider this a big game at all since the Kestrels were done with Huron League play. He considered it more of a preparation game for Districts. SMCC will take a 17-3 record into the postseason after starting the year 0-2 and 3-3.
"Probably the best thing that happened to us was the spanking that Monroe gave us early," Jon LaBeau said. "Until then, it was almost like we considered it a rite of passage that we would win our league and District. It's been a slow progression since then."
Ida got a solid floor game from guard Erin Bentley, who scored 12 points and pulled down 7 rebounds. Kyrie Cramer was perfect from the floor and the line, canning all eight of her shots for 14 points. Kayla Spotts added 9 points.
Sepesy had just gotten over an illness that sidelined her last week. Coach Tim Leonard said the loss of his senior guard was big, but it shouldn't have been 32 points big.
"When you have a young team with four sophomores and three freshmen, it hurts when you lose your only senior leadership," he said. "It was a combination of physically and mentally we lost our edge and we were never able to recover from that."
He praised the play of Bentley, saying, "She kind of took a beating out there and she played hard the whole time. To me, it was two different games. We were moving well, shutting them down and making them put the ball on the floor in the first half. In the second half we turned into individuals, maybe because everybody thought they had to do it on their own. With Rachel out, we had to switch to a zone and we didn't run our zone assignments."
Ida will take a 15-5 record into District action.
SMCC won the JV game 52-41. Hannah Christensen scored 20 for the Kestrels. Ida got 12 from McKenzie Lein.
SMCC 75
FG-A FT-A R F Pts
Cousino 1-3 0-0 1 4 2
Flynn 3-6 1-2 2 3 8
Langton 0-2 0-0 2 2 0
Jordan 0-0 0-0 5 0 0
LaBeau 7-19 2-2 3 0 20
Strauss 3-8 0-0 7 2 8
Huntoon 6-14 1-2 3 5 14
Boggs 2-12 0-0 2 2 4
Harris 2-5 0-2 2 0 5
Stein 1-8 1-2 9 3 3
Lovell 1-2 0-0 2 1 3
Savage 3-3 0-0 0 0 8
Totals 29-82 5-10 38 22 75
Three-point field goals: LaBeau 4, Stauss 2, Savage 2, Flynn 1, Huntoon 1, Harris 1, Lovell 1.
IDA 43
FG-A FT-A R F Pts
Cramer 5-5 3-3 7 1 14
Bentley 2-7 7-11 7 1 12
Spotts 4-8 1-3 3 2 9
Sepesy 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
DeLand 0-2 2-2 2 1 2
Begeman 0-3 1-2 3 2 1
Honomichl 1-7 0-0 2 3 3
Kloster 1-4 0-0 2 1 2
Horney 0-0 0-3 2 1 0
Beard 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 13-38 14-24 28 12 43
Three-point field goals: Cramer 1, Bentley 1, Honomichl 1.
Score by Quarters
SMCC 14 23 23 15 - 75
Ida 13 15 12 3 - 43
SMCC has too much depth for Streaks
Ida may have lost more than a basketball game Thursday night.
www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061110/SPORTS/111100022
Emma LaBeau scored 20 points as St. Mary Catholic Central wore down the Blue Streaks 75-43 in a nonleague battle between two of the Region's best teams.
The game turned on a dime with just under three minutes remaining in the first quarter.
Ida led 7-2 and had outrebounded the Kestrels 8-1. But the Blue Streaks tried a long inbounds pass to Rachel Sepesy for a potential layup. The team's only senior chased the ball out of bounds, changed directions to avoid fans standing on the sideline and injured her left knee.
Without Sepesy, the Blue Streaks battled for a while but ultimately collapsed.
SMCC scored the next nine points and never trailed again. Ida stayed close until the final minutes of the second quarter when the Kestrels' depth began having an effect.
It was Senior Night at SMCC, and the Ketrels celebrated by winning their 14th straight game. But it was a junior - LaBeau - who had the hot hand. She scored her team's first 7 points and connected on four 3-pointers.
"I just felt good tonight with my shot," LaBeau said. "Being the point guard in my group (of five), I felt I had to get it going at the beginning."
The same teams met under similar circumstances last year when Ida snapped SMCC's 14-game winning streak. But coach Jon LaBeau only mentioned that once all week to his team.
"It was in my head," Emma LaBeau said. "But tonight was also our last home game, so I was playing more for my seniors than for revenge."
Senior Night was more like Senior Nightmare for the four 12th-graders on the court. Besides Sepesy's injury, SMCC's Bethany Cousino picked up three fouls in the first four minutes of the game and the Kestrels' Kelsey Langton and Katie Jordan were held scoreless.
SMCC didn't need any more scoring help though, as seven players combined on 12 three-pointers. Kelsey Huntoon had 14 points, 5-6 guard Haley Stein led her team with 9 rebounds and Alicia Flynn's 8 points included the play of the game, a turn-around 3-pointer that banged off the backboard just as the third quarter ended.
"My take is we wore them down," Jon LaBeau said. "We had about three runs of eight or nine points in a row. We didn't start out very well. I looked up and we had two points in the first six minutes. When we get in foul trouble early like we did, that's an indication that we're not ready to play. We're letting our hands do what our legs should do."
The coach didn't consider this a big game at all since the Kestrels were done with Huron League play. He considered it more of a preparation game for Districts. SMCC will take a 17-3 record into the postseason after starting the year 0-2 and 3-3.
"Probably the best thing that happened to us was the spanking that Monroe gave us early," Jon LaBeau said. "Until then, it was almost like we considered it a rite of passage that we would win our league and District. It's been a slow progression since then."
Ida got a solid floor game from guard Erin Bentley, who scored 12 points and pulled down 7 rebounds. Kyrie Cramer was perfect from the floor and the line, canning all eight of her shots for 14 points. Kayla Spotts added 9 points.
Sepesy had just gotten over an illness that sidelined her last week. Coach Tim Leonard said the loss of his senior guard was big, but it shouldn't have been 32 points big.
"When you have a young team with four sophomores and three freshmen, it hurts when you lose your only senior leadership," he said. "It was a combination of physically and mentally we lost our edge and we were never able to recover from that."
He praised the play of Bentley, saying, "She kind of took a beating out there and she played hard the whole time. To me, it was two different games. We were moving well, shutting them down and making them put the ball on the floor in the first half. In the second half we turned into individuals, maybe because everybody thought they had to do it on their own. With Rachel out, we had to switch to a zone and we didn't run our zone assignments."
Ida will take a 15-5 record into District action.
SMCC won the JV game 52-41. Hannah Christensen scored 20 for the Kestrels. Ida got 12 from McKenzie Lein.
SMCC 75
FG-A FT-A R F Pts
Cousino 1-3 0-0 1 4 2
Flynn 3-6 1-2 2 3 8
Langton 0-2 0-0 2 2 0
Jordan 0-0 0-0 5 0 0
LaBeau 7-19 2-2 3 0 20
Strauss 3-8 0-0 7 2 8
Huntoon 6-14 1-2 3 5 14
Boggs 2-12 0-0 2 2 4
Harris 2-5 0-2 2 0 5
Stein 1-8 1-2 9 3 3
Lovell 1-2 0-0 2 1 3
Savage 3-3 0-0 0 0 8
Totals 29-82 5-10 38 22 75
Three-point field goals: LaBeau 4, Stauss 2, Savage 2, Flynn 1, Huntoon 1, Harris 1, Lovell 1.
IDA 43
FG-A FT-A R F Pts
Cramer 5-5 3-3 7 1 14
Bentley 2-7 7-11 7 1 12
Spotts 4-8 1-3 3 2 9
Sepesy 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
DeLand 0-2 2-2 2 1 2
Begeman 0-3 1-2 3 2 1
Honomichl 1-7 0-0 2 3 3
Kloster 1-4 0-0 2 1 2
Horney 0-0 0-3 2 1 0
Beard 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 13-38 14-24 28 12 43
Three-point field goals: Cramer 1, Bentley 1, Honomichl 1.
Score by Quarters
SMCC 14 23 23 15 - 75
Ida 13 15 12 3 - 43