Women of Steal

Woodstown girls turn 32 steals into 39 points, rout Highland Regional in SJIBT opener; Wolverines have eye-popping 87 steals in their three wins

SJIBT FIRST-ROUND
Woodstown 77, Highland 38

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

WOODSTOWN – When the Woodstown girls basketball team posted 43 steals in their season opener last week folks might have thought it was some anomaly or miscount. Even new coach Matt Smart had to do a double-take and then double-checked that. It’s gotta be some kind of record, right?

There was no mistake. That’s just how the Wolverines have been playing.

They’ve been picking opponents’ pockets all season, and even more impressively, usually without drawing a reaching foul.

They did have 43 steals in that opener against Salem and they had 32 more Saturday on their way to a 77-38 rout of Highland Regional in their South Jersey Invitational (SJIBT) opener. They now host the winner of the Jan. 11 Shawnee-Medford Tech game in the second round to be completed by Jan. 25.

Unofficially, the Wolverines (3-0) had 29 steals over 61 possessions for 39 points in the three quarters the regulars played against Highland. Megan Donelson was credited with 11 (she had 10 in the Salem game). Talia Battavio and Lauren Hengel each had five. Eight players had at least one.

The Women of Steal now have 87 in their first three games, nearly a third of the number they had in 28 games last season (265).

“It definitely is very impressive,” Smart said. “Those girls just have a knack for the ball. It’s just natural instinct for some of them.”

The Wolverines were good at it out of the 2-3 last year and now it’s translating to their man. Even when they called off the press they still got steals off the trap and front-court defense. They had 18 steals in the first half, then came out of the break and turned over the Tartans on 12 of their first 14 possessions with nine more steals, scoring 19 points.

“We don’t specifically practice it, it’s just the way we play our game,” said senior Gianna Miorini, who added four to the steal total. “We are a fast-motion, quick point team. Megan and Talia are there for the layups and we’re there to make those steals and send them up the court.”

“We wouldn’t be able to get the (number of) steals without everyone else on the team, the shifting and everything,” Battavio said.  “I think we’re amazing at it and we attack it well.”

Battavio and Donelson led the offense with 26 and 19 points, respectively, with a lot of layups between them, but they’re in there mixing it up on the defensive end, too. There are plenty of frames on the highlight reel where one will tip the ball away and then get out on a 2-on-1 break with the other and no one can tell who’s going to finish off the play.

“They’re really good at attacking loose balls,” Smart said. “If they tip it, they have that mindset that ball’s mine. My favorite part of this is like one girl will make a steal and they’ll be running with her and she passes the ball off for a layup, giving up a shot for a better shot.”

Of course, the Wolverines know there are some risks associated with such an aggressive approach. If the officials want to call a less physical game they might be in trouble, but it hasn’t been an issue so far.

The Wolverines have picked it and gotten clean away.

WOODSTOWN 77, HIGHLAND 38
HIGHLAND (0-3) – Jianna Beltran 0 0-0 0, Tajai Webb 3 0-0 9, Sage Shaw 6 7-9 19, Christiana Crawford 0 0-0 0, Wilkaliry Rodriguez 1 0-0 3, SeJeida Jordan 3 1-2 7, Keymiyah Shinholder 0 0-0 0, Emily Silva 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 8-11 38.
WOODSTOWN (3-0) – Talia Battavio 11-16 3-5 26, Kendall Young 1-7 3-5 5, Mia Waterman 1-4 0-0 3, Emma Perry 2-9 0-0 5, Talia Guardascione 2-7 1-2 5, Lauren Hengel 2-8 0-0 5, Gianna Maiorini 3-10 0-0 6, Brynley Ecret 1-6 0-0 2, Megan Donelson 7-9 5-5 19, Lizzy Daly 0-1 0-0 0, Jala Thomas 0-1 1-2 1, Kyia Leyman 0-1 0-0 0, Monah Green 0-0 0-0 0, Kailyn Kennedy 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 30-80 13-19 77.

Highland	14	4	3	17-	38
Woodstown	19	23	28	7-	77

3-point goals: Highland 4 (Webb 3, Rodriguez); Woodstown 4 (Battavio, Waterman, Perry, Hengel). Rebounds: Woodstown 40 (Maiorini 6, Young 5). Fouled out: Beltran. Total fouls: Highland 12, Woodstown 16.

Cover photo: Woodstown’s Kendall Young (blue jersey) tries to pry the ball away from Highland’s Jianna Beltran during their SJIBT opener Saturday.