Final MM 57 Pinewood 52
- Thread starter jazzpt55
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overtime. as score suggests, both teams stayed back on defense, very few transition buckets--half court game at both ends. Ionescu picks up 2 offensive fouls in 1st quarter, a third offensive foul in 2nd, stays clean in 2nd half. doc had her double/triple teamed whenever she had the ball, effective defensive scheme. #24 rains 3s in first half, Hing big from beyond the arc and attacking the basket down the stretch. 5 point final margin deceptive--free throws. two evenly matched squads, somebody had to go home. Pinewood showed they belonged in Open, probably deserved better than #7 seed. hard to imagine that any of their DV state champ teams (there've been quite a few) were any better than this squad. I left a Miramonte fan
and a Pinewood fan, too.
Sounds like a great atmosphere in Orinda. Doc and Pinewood almost pulled it off, but Miramonte showed some of its depth to get the win. They host SI on Tuesday.
SI's chances depend pretty heavily on how badly Raggio's ankle is hurt. If she's 90% or better, they have a significant size advantage ...
As for Pinewood-Miramonte, what high school basketball should be all about. Pinewood brought a rooter's bus, Miramonte had a good student section and the stands were pretty much filled with Lamorinda community members, high school coaches and Lindsay Gottlieb of Cal front and center.
Pinewood double-teamed Ionescu every time she had the ball, forcing her to give it up (that works because Pinewood has good enough players to double-team effectively; double-teaming with weak defenders wouldn't help because Ionescu would just dribble through the trap). Early on, Elle Louie took advantage and I think was the leading scorer, but Ionescu didn't get her first basket until midway through the second quarter.
Lots of offensive fouls called, but the big one was at the end when Clair Steele (a freshman who hit the big threes against O'Dowd) drew one from Gaby Bade when Pinewood had the ball and needed a three to tie. Bade could have driven around her and gotten to the rim, but that wouldn't have helped, and Bade definitely fended her off with her forearm, and Steele, much smaller, keeled over backward. Tough call, and hard to read just how much contact there was -- but offensive fouls were called all night (good officiating, by the way) so no real surprise.
Uriah Howard made two huge plays for Miramonte close to the end of regulation and though Marissa Hing struggled early, she made two threes and the tying basket in the second half. (Love how she plays ...)
Miramonte led most of the game but could never put Pinewood away ... just a wonderful high school basketball game.
As for Pinewood-Miramonte, what high school basketball should be all about. Pinewood brought a rooter's bus, Miramonte had a good student section and the stands were pretty much filled with Lamorinda community members, high school coaches and Lindsay Gottlieb of Cal front and center.
Pinewood double-teamed Ionescu every time she had the ball, forcing her to give it up (that works because Pinewood has good enough players to double-team effectively; double-teaming with weak defenders wouldn't help because Ionescu would just dribble through the trap). Early on, Elle Louie took advantage and I think was the leading scorer, but Ionescu didn't get her first basket until midway through the second quarter.
Lots of offensive fouls called, but the big one was at the end when Clair Steele (a freshman who hit the big threes against O'Dowd) drew one from Gaby Bade when Pinewood had the ball and needed a three to tie. Bade could have driven around her and gotten to the rim, but that wouldn't have helped, and Bade definitely fended her off with her forearm, and Steele, much smaller, keeled over backward. Tough call, and hard to read just how much contact there was -- but offensive fouls were called all night (good officiating, by the way) so no real surprise.
Uriah Howard made two huge plays for Miramonte close to the end of regulation and though Marissa Hing struggled early, she made two threes and the tying basket in the second half. (Love how she plays ...)
Miramonte led most of the game but could never put Pinewood away ... just a wonderful high school basketball game.
glad to see Clay at the game. yes, Louie scored 13 attacking the basket in 1st half, kept M in the game. and Howard had an outstanding game protecting the paint and getting defensive rebounds. and the last push off call on Bade was set up by Steele aggressively jumping out on the screen being set for Bade, heads up reaction play by the frosh. 2 questions for Clay or anyone else.
first, if memory serves (mind you, I don't know where my car keys are) P's last possession in regulation came off a timeout. M had 5 team fouls, clock was in the teens. do you tell your team to give the foul and disrupt P's play, taking time off the clock? or is that getting too cute? I mean, get a stop, defend the three, don't foul the shooter. plus, if you reach for Hing you might get air.
more complicated is M's response to the double/triple teams of Ionescu. at first they maintained their spacing and got a restart off the outlet pass. late in the game, they were popping Howard up to the elbow to receive a high post entry, not denied. should they be making more of an effort to punish the trap? is it too late in the season to introduce fresh material, and should they concentrate on fundamentals? the window to punish the trap closes very quickly, so the responses almost have to automatic, i.e, rehearsed and instinctual.
I'm thinking Howard could pivot and face, giving her the options to shoot, pass, or attack. keeping her back to the basket only gives her the option to pass, away from the basket at that, essentially a restart for Ionescu. and that forgotten player, the one that every trap makes a living off, the one in the corner diagonally opposite, instead of maintaing her position, should she make an attacking cut? the non- trapping defenders outnumbered by the untrapped offenders(?) are in a de facto zone and she's coming from the blind side. or again, is that too much material introduced too late in the season?
now that they're in the heavyweight division, they'll see more such traps.
This post was edited on 3/14 4:08 PM by mkbgdns
first, if memory serves (mind you, I don't know where my car keys are) P's last possession in regulation came off a timeout. M had 5 team fouls, clock was in the teens. do you tell your team to give the foul and disrupt P's play, taking time off the clock? or is that getting too cute? I mean, get a stop, defend the three, don't foul the shooter. plus, if you reach for Hing you might get air.
more complicated is M's response to the double/triple teams of Ionescu. at first they maintained their spacing and got a restart off the outlet pass. late in the game, they were popping Howard up to the elbow to receive a high post entry, not denied. should they be making more of an effort to punish the trap? is it too late in the season to introduce fresh material, and should they concentrate on fundamentals? the window to punish the trap closes very quickly, so the responses almost have to automatic, i.e, rehearsed and instinctual.
I'm thinking Howard could pivot and face, giving her the options to shoot, pass, or attack. keeping her back to the basket only gives her the option to pass, away from the basket at that, essentially a restart for Ionescu. and that forgotten player, the one that every trap makes a living off, the one in the corner diagonally opposite, instead of maintaing her position, should she make an attacking cut? the non- trapping defenders outnumbered by the untrapped offenders(?) are in a de facto zone and she's coming from the blind side. or again, is that too much material introduced too late in the season?
now that they're in the heavyweight division, they'll see more such traps.
This post was edited on 3/14 4:08 PM by mkbgdns
Good questions ...
1) The whole fouling issue is a controversy at every level, but in high school, I just fear my players' ability to do so without fouling in the act of shooting. (It's also about refs who aren't as experienced.) I wouldn't do it, but I know some coaches would -- but even in the NBA there are coaches who feel it's better to just to play it out.
2) In the first half, the double-team on Ionescu almost always came from the weakside wing, which meant the pass to Louie was open. In the second half, it seemed like that outlet was cut off, but I'm not sure it was intentional. Nonetheless, the outlet to Howard on the high post was there, but she's not the best ballhandler, and I think worked more in Pinewood's favor.
Obviously, Pinewood is very well coached, and the ideal situation is for the defense to rotate so that the undefended player is the furthest from the trap, making the pass harder to make. That could have been a second-half Pinewood adjustment, but I couldn't say for sure.
1) The whole fouling issue is a controversy at every level, but in high school, I just fear my players' ability to do so without fouling in the act of shooting. (It's also about refs who aren't as experienced.) I wouldn't do it, but I know some coaches would -- but even in the NBA there are coaches who feel it's better to just to play it out.
2) In the first half, the double-team on Ionescu almost always came from the weakside wing, which meant the pass to Louie was open. In the second half, it seemed like that outlet was cut off, but I'm not sure it was intentional. Nonetheless, the outlet to Howard on the high post was there, but she's not the best ballhandler, and I think worked more in Pinewood's favor.
Obviously, Pinewood is very well coached, and the ideal situation is for the defense to rotate so that the undefended player is the furthest from the trap, making the pass harder to make. That could have been a second-half Pinewood adjustment, but I couldn't say for sure.
