2009 Girls High School Summer League

Final Four Coverage

 

Summer Finals Are Set:  St. Mark’s vs. Hodgson

Sanford Eliminated in an Upset by HVT

Spartans Cruise Over Caravel

by Jim Charles

(Posted 7-22-09)

 

St. Mark’s and Sanford both brought perfect 10 – 0 summer league regular season records into the playoffs this year – the only Blue Division teams with such spotless ledgers.  In the Semi-Finals Tuesday night, the St. Mark’s machine would keep on rolling over their latest opponents, Caravel Academy.  This latest version of the Spartan roster relies, as it perennially does, on deep, team basketball.  But it is clear that four girls are sharing most of the load:  Allison Zimny, Lindsey Nichols, Kara Gallagher and Annie Rivituso.  While two of the quartet are nominally guards, none are exactly small.  All are of a good size and all could easily play frontcourt for a lot of area high schools.  Together, they play the trademark John Fiorelli methodical type of game.  Defensively, this is a focused bunch.  They know what they have to do and they go about doing it professionally and unemotionally.  And, at the other end, while there is no superstar scorer in the lineup, just about any St. Markian player can score when called upon.  There may not be a more efficient team in the State.

 

Their would-be foils this evening were the Lady Bucs of Caravel.  For Coach Caldwell, this latest edition of her team is a classic “good news, bad news” story.  The good news?  This is a team with a nice balance of experienced, intelligent players and up-and-coming underclassmen.  All are basketball players in the truest sense of the word.  All know how to play this sport.  The bad news?  There is not a true, reliable go-to girl among them.  No proven scorer.  No girl who can jam the ball home at a rate of 15 points per game or better.  And very few who can even get to 10 points on anything like a consistent basis.  If Caravel has an Achilles heel this coming winter season, it will be with regard to this very point.  Consider that on this night, Courtney Migliocco led the Lady Bucs in scoring with 4 points.  They'll just have to do better than that if they want to be in the mix in March.  Oh, they’ll win a good number of games.  They’ll win by scores not unlike those of St. Mark’s a year ago.  Pitchers’ duels.  Scores like 25 – 23 might be in their future.  Their defense will keep them competitive.  But on this July night, St. Mark’s would not oblige Caravel with a tight score.  They won going away by a 40 – 13 margin.

 

In the early game of this Final Four double header, Hodgson Vo-Tech managed an upset victory over Sanford, a team that had many summer league fans all abuzz this season.  A key component to the Silver Eagle win had to be that at tip-off, three (count ‘em, three) of Sanford’s superguards, Naiesha Brown, Amber Genwright and Andrea Hines were all absent from the building.  HVT took full advantage of the handicap and broke out of the gates to 7 – 0 lead.  About this point in the game, Brown arrived and began making her presence known.  Still, there would be no Genwright (ACL tear) or Hines.  The Lady Warriors were forced to tap into their younger player reserves, and while all played hard, it just never seemed to be enough to overcome the fast Silver Eagle start.  The game was Hodgson’s at halftime, 23 – 11, and while Sanford bested the Birds by a basket in the second half, it still added up to a 36 – 26 Hodgson win.

 

And that really takes us into the singular story of the night:  How about this Hodgson team?!?  I know I didn’t expect much out of a team that, over the last two years, lost talent like Kanzes Battin, Erika Furrowh, Sironda Chambers and Asha Jones to graduation.  But apparently, Coach Chris Jones has a talent reservoir at Hodgson that is nothing short of remarkable.  Kiersten Fauntleroy and Tiffany Anderson were obvious standouts, but the Hodgsonites got impressive guard play out of Coreenah Redden (9 points) and __ Johnson (7 points) as well.  But, let’s forget about individual players for a moment.  This was a team that played their hearts out!  A team on a mission.  Simply put, HVT was the single most intense team in the Semi-Finals.  Will they be able to give Coach Fiorelli all he can handle Thursday night?  Stay tuned for the answer!  Should be a great Final.

 

 

 

 

Sanford's Alexa Webb

 

HVT's Kiersten Fauntleroy puts up a shot underneath as Naiesha Brown comes over to defend.  Fauntleroy turned in a very nice 11 point performance -- tops for the Silver Eagles.

 

Naiesha Brown was brilliant, as usual.  Her 12 points paced the Warrior attack.  Six-footer Tiffany Anderson contests the shot.

 

St. Mark's Lindsey Nichols (#34 in blue) does all she can to relieve Caravel's Yasmin Walker of the rock.  Nichols would finish with a cool dozen points.

 

Most nights during summer league, Caravel only brought 5 or 6 players.  This night was no different.  One of the six who decided top drop by was talented guard Ashley Bonk.

 

Former iPOW winner, Kat Durbano.  She posted 4 points on the night.

 

Katrina Swank did split duty between JV and varsity as a sophomore last season.  For the '09/'10 campaign, look for her to suit varsity all the way.

 

Another look at the Nichols/Walker match-up.

 

Six-time State Champion, John Fiorelli, contemplates his team's chances in the Finals.

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