Defense the key

Woodstown girls use defense to advance to SJIBT Elite 8; Penns Grove boys lose to Cinnaminson, but better for the experience

SATURDAY’S BASKETBALL SCORES
Boys
Paul VI Winter Classic
Cinnaminson 65, Penns Grove 44

South Jersey Invitational
Woodstown 55, Camden Catholic 41

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

CHERRY HILL – Defense wins championships and it’s at least putting the Woodstown girls in a position to chase one in the South Jersey Invitational Basketball Tournament.

The Wolverines punched their ticket to the Elite 8 of the SJIBT Saturday with a 55-41 win over host Camden Catholic.

There are six games remaining in the tournament’s Sweet 16. The entire Elite 8 will be reseeded once it is determined before the field moves on to Eastern High School for the remainder of the event.

The Wolverines (10-2), the last South Jersey Group I team alive in the tournament, used two big defensive stretches to help their cause. They held the Irish (4-10) to three points in the fourth quarter and outscored them 16-3 to secure their fifth win in a row.

“Defense is what nobody loves to play, but it’s the thing that makes or breaks teams,” Woodstown coach Kara Straughn said. “They (the Wolverines) play so well together, they’re constantly talking to each other, they trust each other, they’re quick to adjust if you tell them to. All five of them who are on the floor are true basketball players, so any defense you tell them to run, they’re going to run effectively. It works so well.”

It looked like they locked up the win with a big run at the end of the first half. They went on a 13-0 run over the final 5:30 of the second quarter to turn a 16-15 deficit into a 28-16 halftime lead. They held the Irish to 0-for-10 shooting and forced three turnovers in the stretch.

The Irish rallied in the second half to get back into it. They came out firing to start the third quarter and hit five 3s among their first six buckets and first 16 points to erase all the good Woodstown did at the end of the half and take a 35-34 lead. Eight of the first nine buckets of the third quarter by either team were 3-pointers.

Woodstown’s winning defensive flurry actually started on the final play of the third quarter. Megan Donelson picked up a loose ball just outside the top of the key and drove the length of the floor for a layup with five-tenths of a second left to send the Wolverines into the fourth quarter with a 39-38 lead.

They didn’t lose the edge during the break. They forced turnovers on each of the first three possessions of the quarter and four over the first 2:30 and converted them all into points.

Talia Battavio got it started right at the start when she made a steal in just about the same place Donelson picked up her loose moments earlier and drove the floor for a layup. Donelson then stole the ensuing possession and fed Battavio for another layup.

The next time down the floor, Shannon Pierman forced a turnover along the baseline, then converted one of two free throws at the other end after the Wolverines put the ball back in play. The run ended just like it started with Battavio making a steal, driving the length of the floor for a layup and one. It gave the Wolverines a 47-39 lead with 5:30 to play.

“Everybody looks at us crazy because we play a 2-3 zone 90 percent of the time, but when we have Talia and Megan up top … once they get going with their steals, there’s just no stopping them,” Straughn said. “We do things just a little bit different that I think really makes huge difference for us.”

Battavio led the Wolverines with 16 points and four steals. Donelson had 15 points and five steals, and Alyssa Baber, whose 3-pointer stopped the Irish’ run in the third quarter, had a career-high 14 points. Both Battavio and Donelson are less than 115 points from 1,000.

“She’s been a little down on herself,” Straughn said of Baber, who miss all of last season with a knee injury. “Not disappointed in herself, but she knows she could be scoring more. She’s been working really hard in the gym, she’s been shooting a ton in practice and she even said this is why I’ve been working so hard because I know I can do it I just needed to put in a little extra. I think the fruits of her labors paid off.

“When a team plays zone against us like they did tonight, our shooters flourish and she just happened to be hot. She took advantage of it. She works super hard in practice and I think tonight showed she could be like that every game. I think it gave her some confidence.”

SJIBT SWEET 16
WOODSTOWN 55, CAMDEN CATHOLIC 41
WOODSTOWN (10-2) – Talia Battavio 5 5-5 16, Megan Donelson 6 2-2 15, Gianna Mairoini 2 0-0 4, Alyssa Baber 6 0-0 14, Shannon Pierman 2 2-4 6, Lauren Hengel 0 0-0 0, Emma Perry 0 0-0 0, Brae DiGregorio 0 0-0 0, Lizzy Daly 0 0-0 0, Ja1a Thomas 0 0-0 0. Totals 21 9-11 55.
CAMDEN CATHOLIC (4-10) – Kayla Dunn 6 0-0 16, Alexa VanHohen 1 1-2 4, Anna DiPiero 4 0-0 11, Caroline Brennan 3 1-2 7, Aaliyah Jackson 0 3-4 3, Ayana Williams 0 0-0 0. Totals 14 5-8 41.

Woodstown	11	17	11	16 –	55
Camden Catholic	11	5	22	3 –	41

Paul IV Winter Classic

WESTMONT – Penns Grove coach Damian Ware knew his team was going up against a machine, but he’s never been one to shy away from competition. What is they say, iron sharpens iron.

The Red Devils may have lost Cinnaminson 65-44 in the Paul VI Winter Classic and were outscored in every quarter, but Ware said they will be better for the experience.

“It was a good game for us to play,” Ware said. “I always want to play up in competition. I don’t like playing down in competition. I want to play teams that are better than us, therefore we get better. We get better by playing better teams. You don’t get better by playing worse teams. That’s one of my beliefs.”

The Red Devils might have lost the game by 21 and all four quarters in the game, but an immediate gauge of the way they got better is by managing to trim the margin of separation in each quarter – 8, 6, 4 and 3.

The Pirates pulled away from an 8-6 game in the first quarter with a couple of late 3-pointers and stretched the lead at the break with a 3 to close out the half.

“We didn’t play super bad, we just didn’t make shots that we needed to make when we needed to make shots,” Ware said. “They’re a team that’s going to make their shots and that’s really what it came down, but it’s not like they just killed us. Each quarter they just beat us by a few points and it totaled up to 20 at the end of the game.”

Starting slow has been a problem. The Red Devils have trailed after the first quarter in nine of their games this season and are 2-7 in them. In games they’ve scored less than 10 points in the first quarter they’re 1-5.

It didn’t help two of their better players were in foul trouble the first half and three others who get a lot of minutes missed the game for various personal reasons. The absences did, however, open the door for some other players to get some quality minutes. 

Neziah Spence, a freshman who’s scored only nine points all season on three 3-pointers, had seven and the Red Devils’ only trey of the game. Sophomore Luis Colon, who’d scored only one, had four.

“It was a chance for other guys to get a little bit of experience,” Ware said. “That’s what we used it as, experience.”

PAUL VI WINTER CLASSIC
CINNAMINSON 65, PENNS GROVE 44
CINNAMINSON (13-2) – Noah Harvey 3 0-0 8, Sody Gautt 3 5-5 11, Drew Harvey 3 2-2 10, Andrew Plaza 4 0-0 9, Collin Parrish 8 0-0 19, Justin Ofori 2 0-0 4, Shane McDevitt 2 0-0 4, James Smith 0 0-0 0, Gavin Ritter 0 0-0 0. Totals 25 7-7 65.
PENNS GROVE (5-7) – Brandon Robbins 0 0-0 0, Giomar Conrad 5 1-2 11, KaRon Ceaser 3 3-3 9, Willie Slocum 3 2-2 8, Mekhi Ballard 0 1-2 1, Camren Thompson 1 0-0 2, Luis Colon 1 2-3 4, Dameon Wilson 1 0-0 2, Neziah Spence 2 2-2 7, Will Roe 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 11-14 44.

Cinnaminson	14	17	16	18 –	65
Penns Grove	6	11	12	15 –	44