2009 Girls High School Summer League
Gold Division Championship Game
"Mount Howard" Bests Archmere in
Gold Division Final, 30 - 22
Jade Wharton Leads the Way for the Winners
By Jim Charles
(Posted 7-29-09)
Your 2009 Gold Division Summer League Champions: Howard/Mt. Pleasant
So ends another season of summer league ball at the Hockessin PAL complex. Mercifully, the cool to mild summer was less of an annoyance than in years past to spectators, but on the court, there was still plenty of heat generated. The Gold Division Finals pitted the Archmere Auks, about to enter their first winter season under new Head Coach, Steve Colella, against a "combo" team of Mount Pleasant and Howard. Both teams, or should we say all three teams, traditionally don't receive a lot of attention during the winter season from the local press, and maybe that's a shame. Certainly, there are talented student-athletes in the three programs. Perhaps the most impressive single talent is Howard's Jade Wharton. This 5' 7" shooting guard -- only an incoming junior -- plays with mature skills and a highly developed head for the game. She led all scorers on the night with 12 points (40% of her team's total output). Because of Wharton, alone, you can bet that DGB.com will be adding Howard to our list of "must see" schools this winter.
The game itself, though a little ragged in places, was evenly paced throughout. At halftime, the Auks were down 14 - 10. The second half would be almost a carbon copy of the first, with the Howard/Mount Pleasant girls being better once again by two baskets. Final score: 30 - 22.
While coming up on the short end, Archmere could take solace in the fact that they played a very team oriented game. Seven of the twelve players suited for the game scored. And the Auks were killer, as a team, from the free throw line, making 9 out of 13 attempts, Ali Hazel a standout in this category, nailing all 4 of her attempts.
Tom Dunn, co-contributor to this website and Padua JV coach, opined that perhaps combination teams should all be made to play up in the Blue Division in future years. It is possible that two average teams could combine to form a superteam, and once together, they could roll over many of the single-school teams in the Gold Division. This year, of the three combo teams, none had a losing regular summer season record. Two of the pairings finished 1st and 3rd in the division! Seems like the league directors could look into this issue and make an adjustment or two.
Top Scorers for Howard/Mt. Pleasant: Wharton 12, Stewart 7, M. Williams 6.
Top Scorers for Archmere: Moira Dolan 5, Nelson 4, Ali Hazel 4.
Archmere's Erin Moffitt looks beyond "Mt. Howard" defender Jade Wharton in search of an open teammate.
Archmere's Ali Hazel preparing a shot under the basket. She'd get fouled on this play and sink both free throws.
Archmere's Nelson (left) pursues Howard/Mt. Pleasant ballhandler, Stewart. (First names were not included in the official scorebook.)
Samira Williams shows nice follow through on this shot. (Hope we spelled her first name right!)
The tale of the tape.
*** 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