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SG Basketball: Musings on BCS Tournament

1/27/2020

Observations and the occasional insight from our solid performance at the BCS Invitational Tournament this past weekend. (West Island College 32-36, St George’s 38-34, The Study 22-18, Sacred Heart School of Montreal 35-21)

Jeniva Coffee had herself a tournament. Her defence was improved, she was aggressive and did not hesitate on offenc e, she was a beast on the glass (her hands are crazy good), and she spent so much time diving on the floor after loose balls that it looked like she was swimming out there. In fact, her intensity and hustle earned Jeniva her first start of the season on Saturday.

Although we jumped out to an early lead and competed hard in the opening game vs WIC, we ultimately lost a close one due to too many mental mistakes. Leading 29-28 with two minutes left in the game, we turned the ball over 3(!) times with ill-advised dribbling and lazy passes, one of them a ‘live’ turnover that led directly to a back-breaking fast-break layup that lost us the lead for good.
We should play St. George’s more often, because this is the second time in two weeks that we had a great, close game against them. Some teams you just match up well with, and this was another back and forth thriller that we ended up winning in the final minute thanks to Player Of The Game Elisabeth Shane’s fourth-quarter heroics – 13 points in the second half!
Cecilia Fava’s father should come watch games more often (SURPRISE!), as Ceci, hungry for rebounds and intelligent on defence, had her best game of the tournament with her dad in the audience vs St. George’s.
It’s nice when you work on something in practice and it translates to game play, i.e. we wanted to start inbounding the ball more quickly after baskets, and we did it much better this weekend.
There is nothing that brings us to the edge of our seats quite like Lea-Rose Remillard or Juliette Veilleux grabbing a loose ball and then leading the fast break, dribbling. You may get Juliette pirouetting on one leg and flinging the ball to who-knows-where, or you may get Lea-Rose bouncing a perfect pass to Mariama for a layup. But whatever ends up happening, you know it’s going to be exciting.
Birthday girl Sumomo Susuta had her best game of the season against Sacred Heart, intense on defence, poised on offence and well-positioned on the defensive glass. Maybe we should sing “Happy Birthday" to her in the BCS dining hall more often?
The golden era of the San Antonio Spurs featured The Big Three, i.e. Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. The Spartans had their own Big Three vs Sacred Heart – Elisabeth, Rosema and Mariama, who scored 34 out of the team’s 35 points (!) in the final game of the weekend.
You gotta love the way we’ve been jumping out of the gate lately: 11-1 vs WIC, 11-2 vs St George’s, 6-4 vs The Study (with three blown layups), and 15-4 vs Sacred Heart, which is a testament to good pregame warmups and focus.
I’d like to take credit for putting Mariama in the high post vs The Study and claim that I knew how good she was going to be there. But I can’t. Like so many important discoveries down through history, we just figured out something amazing by complete accident. With her instincts and vision, she is going to be spending a lot more time in the high post in the future. I agree, Mariama – “It IS fun to play there!”And we’ll finish with the Quote of the Week from Elisabeth, who when asked if she knew that the Saints had just switched to a man-to-man defence, replied; “Well, yes, I noticed, but I didn’t realize.”

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2019-20 Stanstead College Spartans!

- Coaches Van Dyke & Wolfe

The year so far….

Overall Record: 11 wins 16 losses
RSEQ League Play: 2 win 8 losses
Points for per game: 32.1 Points allowed per game: 34.7

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