Ursuline Defeats Caravel Behind Stunning Performance by Elena Delle Donne
UConn Signee Turns in 50 Point Night as Raiders Rout Bucs, 76 - 51
February 8, 2008
by Jim Charles & Tom Dunn
There's virtually nothing more to say, write or think about Elena Delle Donne that hasn't already been said, written or thought about. She is the basketball equivalent of having nuclear weapons. Last year, two teams had "the bomb", this year, just one. And that puts every other team at a distinct disadvantage - even a wonderful team like Caravel.
Earlier in the week, the Lady Raiders hosted Padua Academy in a game that, judging by their lackluster, ho-hum, "let's-just-win-and-go-home" performance, they did not take all that seriously. Last night at Caravel Academy, the Ursulinians turned it up a few notches and demonstrated that the Lady Buccaneers were a team they clearly respected. Every Ursuline player was pumped and came to play.
As for Elena? Well, how's this for one night's work? Eight three-pointers made. Eleven two-point baskets. Four more points from the charity stripe. That's not to mention all the rebounds, the handful of blocked shots she got, and the "non-shots." Non-shots are where the defender is so good/tall/intimidating that the girl with the ball doesn't even bother trying to shoot.
Lost in all this was the fantastic effort of Caravel's Dara Taylor who threw down 26 points of her own, including 4 threes. Dara played on her toes all night and must've been an inspiration to her teammates. Karona Roach contributed 10 points to the Lady Bucs' cause - the only other Caravel girl in double digits.
All in all, Caravel has nothing to be ashamed of coming out of this game. In fact, several aspects of the game should be quite encouraging to them. Just the fact that Ursuline did not sleepwalk through the game and took the contest seriously (a compliment they don't bestow on just any team) should be most heartening. Add to this that no less than 7 Caravelians scored, and that Taylor and Roach were able to stand tall under the bombardment.
For Ursuline, they will not be stopped BY ANYONE if Delle Donne can continue to have 35 to 50 point games. And nine-and-a-half out of ten teams in the state can't beat Ursuline even when Elena is on the disabled list. So, things look very good for them indeed. Kayla Miller is probably the most accomplished point in the state, although Symone Woody and Dara Taylor might make good arguments why they should be considered. Erin Edwards might be the unsung hero in the superstar starting lineup that Ursuline fields. If she was anywhere else, she would be thought of as an all-time great player at that school. As it is, she chose Ursuline, where the talent is such that an Erin Edwards can get lost in the shuffle when it comes time for attention and accolades. That being said, I don't think she regrets playing for this once in a generation team one little bit. But you know what? I haven't even gotten to the most important thing. And that is Ursuline's post-Elena future. Ursuline fields a varsity bench that could school most opponents' starting five. And, dare I say, the same could be said for their JV team! This program is stocked! They're good to go for another 5 years, easy!
NB: The News Journal website ran an update on this game, posted 8:49 AM, 02-08-08. They reported the score as 76 - 51 while we had it as 74 - 51, based on how the scoreboard read at the end of the game. A recount of individual points from our own scoresheet shows that Ursuline did indeed score 76 points. However, the News Journal also claims that Elena Delle Donne had 51, while we have her at 50. While we await the publication of the boxscore in the newspaper, we will stay with our figure of 50 points for Elena.
Here's our breakdown on all of Ursuline's players and how it adds up to 76:
Perrotti: 2
McHugh: 2
Ka. Miller: 1
Delle Donne: 50
Ke. Miller: 2
Bateman: 4
Collins: 3
Doogan: 2
O'Hanlon: 7
Williams: 3
TOTAL: 76
February 9, 2008 Update:
The News Journal published a boxscore of the game today. The discrepancy is between Elena and Shannon O'Hanlon. We show O'Hanlon with 7 points, Elena with 50. The News Journal shows O'Hanlon with 6, Elena with 51. In fairness to the newspaper, they can only go by the "official" gamebook as phoned into them by, presumably, Ursuline (or Caravel). For our part, we know our Delle Donnes from our O'Hanlons and believe that our version of the boxscore is correct. Further investigation shows that the News Journal boxscore has Elena being 5-for-7 from the free-throw line. We have her at 4-for-5. Chances are probably good that difference (1-for-2 from the line) actually came from O'Hanlon, but was credited - improperly - to Delle Donne.
We are, in no way, attempting to cheat Elena out of a point or to lessen her accomplishment. Whether she scored 50 or 51 -- it's simply a superhuman achievement either way. That said, we only want to get the figure CORRECT. We stand by our count.
Images from the Game
There she is.
Ellee Rollins (left) trying her best to be a pain to Erin Edwards.
Dara Taylor launches an unbelievably long three-point attempt over Ursuline's Lauren Bateman.
Ursuline's Kelsey Miller faces up with Caravel's Karona Roach.
Dara Taylor attempts a baseline layup with nothing but black jerseys around her.
Kayla Miller
Austin Noonan lets a 16-footer fly while three Lady Bucs underneath jockey for position.
*** The purpose of this page, like the rest of this site, is to promote girls basketball in the State of Delaware. This is hard to do if individual players cannot be singled out.
However, I will honor all requests by players or parents to remove their/their daughters' names and/or images from this review. I will also gladly correct any misspelled names, or add names where now I list only a player uniform number. Just email me. *** DelGirlsHoops@aol.comJim Charles