Mighty Oaks women have a lot to work on after one-point scrimmage loss at home to Penn State-Brandywine; visitors won it on FT with five seconds left
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
CARNEYS POINT — Scrimmages are supposed to teach a team things they just can’t get in a regular practice. And in the case of the Salem CC women, it’s a practice with a limited number of players.
One of the things the Mighty Oaks learned in their first scrimmage of the season Thursday is they have to be prepared to take a team’s best punch at the start of the second half.
The Mighty Oaks took an eight-point lead into halftime, but they were outscored 13-1 in the first three minutes of the third quarter to lose that lead. They did get back on their feet and actually regained the lead, but eventually fell to Penn State-Brandywine 45-44 on a free throw with five seconds to play.
They only had seven regulars available and on some days have to send their assistant coaches into action just to have enough to practice.
“We’re a young team, we’ve been coming off a lot of injuries, we’re just finally getting healthy,” coach Brian Marsh said. “They haven’t seen (a) a 5-on-5 and (b) a team that plays this hard, this scrappy. It’s really hard to run an offense against a team like this.
“Even though that defense is trying to speed you up and speed you up, that’s when you have to calm down and run some things. That’s exactly why we’re doing these scrimmages. We’re just trying to get this thing straightened out.”
Salem took a 20-12 lead into halftime, but the Lions came out of the break with energy, turned the Mighty Oaks over at an alarming rate and had as many points in those opening three minutes of the third quarter as they’d scored the entire first half.
At one point in the second half, Salem had as many turnovers in the game as Brandywine had points (35) and finished with 43 for the game. Their final turnover led to the game-winning free throw.
“They gave us a lot of problems, but our guards have to do a better job and our coaches have to do a better job,” Marsh said. “Unfortunately, with so many injuries, we weren’t able to put that kind of pressure on our point guards. They don’t see it until today, so it’s kind of hard to know what you’re going to go up against if you haven’t gone up against it yet.”
The run actually became 18-2 and the Mighty Oaks fell behind 30-22. They didn’t hit a field goal in the first seven minutes of the half.
But they were never too far back to make a comeback. They moved their defense up closer to half-court, got the game tied on Raynescia King’s steal and layup with 4:07 to play and actually regained the lead on Tanijya Shaw[s layup off Justine Cardona’s steal with 2:24 left.
Brandywine retied it at 44 with less than a minute to play. The Mighty Oaks called time with 18.2 seconds left to set up their end game. They put the ball in play from in front of their bench, but lost it on the baseline. The Lions got it to midcourt where King collided with Tejanae Ballin with five seconds left.
Ballin, a freshman, hit her first free throw to break the tie, but missed the second. Salem’s Paula Wilson corralled the rebound and got it out to Jayda Hunter, who got it to Shaw, but Shaw got turned around on the left side of the 3-point line and couldn’t get off a shot before the horn sounded.
Shaw led the Mighty Oaks with 24 points and was their only scorer in double figures. Kasey Oliver was their top rebounder with 15, but Dani Gustin, Wilson and Shaw each had five.
“Give our girls credit, we played really hard,” Marsh said. “I said I thought our effort was great, our execution needs a lot of work. We have five scrimmages to get this thing straight for (the season opener) Nov. 4.
“I think the girls did an excellent job of not giving up. They didn’t hang their head and they just kept fighting and fighting. That’s what this program is going to be built upon, the toughness and the never-say-die attitude.”
The Salem CC men’s team, preseason ranked No. 5 in JUCO Division III, went to Alvernia for a scrimmage and “got handled.” Jarrell Little led the Mighty Oaks with 16 points. Lamar Anderson had 12.
| PSU-Brandywine | 7 | 5 | 23 | 10- | 45 |
| Salem CC | 8 | 12 | 9 | 15- | 44 |
Salem scoring: Jayda Hunter 0 0-2 0, Tanijya Shaw 9 5-10 24, Dani Gustin 2 0-0 4, Kasey Oliver 0 5-8 5, Raynescia King 2 1-2 5, Paula Wilson 1 0-0 2, Imara James 0 1-2 1, Justine Cardona 0 3-4 3.
Salem rebounding: Jayda Hunter 3, Tinijya Shaw 5, Dani Gustin 5, Kasey Oliver 13, Raynescia King 4, Paula Wilson 5, Imara James 1, Justine Cardona 1.
Free throws: Salem CC 15-28, PSU-Brandywine 8-24.
Turnovers: Salem CC 43, PSU-Brandywine 32.
Top photo: Salem CC women’s basketball coach Brian Marsh makes a point to guards Raynescia King (00) and Justine Cardona during the first quarter of their scrimmage with Penn State-Brandywine.
Riverview Sports News 