Weedsport digs in defensively

By Michelle Prego-Milewski / Special to The Citizen

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 11:53 AM EST

WEEDSPORT - The Morrisville-Eaton girls basketball team traveled a long way in the cold Tuesday only to be frozen out by the Weedsport defense.
Chet Susslin / The Citizen
Weedsport junior Allison Roosa drives through Morrisville-Eaton sophomore Sami Leamer, left, and senior Becca Mennig on Tuesday. Roosa drew a foul and converted the three-point play.
The No. 2 seeded Warriors held No. 7 M-E to 14 first-half points to advance to the Section III, Class C-2 semifinals, 54-34. Weedsport will play the winner of No. 3 Waterville and No. 6 Fabius-Pompey at a time and place to be determined this weekend.

The Warriors (16-5) allowed M-E (6-15) hardly any breathing room offensively. Weedsport's aggressive guards disrupted Morrisville's backcourt, and size in the paint prevented any easy baskets.

Offensively, Weedsport did a better job of spreading the court and finding the open player. While both teams scored the majority of their points from underneath, the Warriors got their mid-range game going in the third quarter, when they opened up a 20-point lead.

Weedsport went on a 10-4 run start the half, thanks to three straight jumpers from Kate Spingler.

However, rebounding was the name of the game for the towering Warriors, who scored 16 points off second-chance shots. Weedsport got to the glass 28 times to M-E's 22. Most of Morrisville's rebounds came in the second half, when the game was far out of reach.

“We rebound well, and when we rebound well we control the game,” said Weedsport guard Kaitlin Hammersley. “Offensive rebounding keeps us going, and if we get a defensive rebound we just push it up the floor.”

Center Markie Kreplin dominated in the first half, and ended up with 12 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks. The senior was also an important press-breaker, as the Warriors were able to get the ball to Kreplin across the court simply by using her 6-foot height.

“We went inside to (Kreplin) for about three or four trips down the floor and she converted on them,” said Weedsport coach Chris Vargason. “That took it from an eight or nine point to a 15- or 16-point (lead). Then from there they had to play catch up.”

Kreplin and teammate Margaret Roberts put the Warriors up early. The pair put up the points while Weedsport's guards were shuffled after the loss of point guard Allison Beardsley to early foul trouble.

Weedsport adapted well to its backup offensive scheme and went on an 18-4 run that stretched over the first two quarters. In that time frame the Warriors defense held M-E scoreless for 4:37.

Despite playing well, Weedsport did struggle with turnovers a fact that it will have to remedy by the next round of play. The Warriors were coming back from a 12-day lay-off, but threw the ball away more than anyone would have liked.

“We've been kind of sitting around idle, waiting and you could see we were a little rusty with that,” Vargason said. “I think we were a little anxious and wanted it up-tempo a little too much.”

Hammersley led the Warriors with 13 points, eight rebounds and three steals. Spingler added eight points and Taylor Roe had seven. Roberts added six rebounds.

W-port 54

M-E 34

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There are 1 comment(s)

music22 wrote on Feb 20, 2008 2:23 PM:

" Hey vargason maybe next time you should play ur best all around player instead of making her sit out the whole second half. and don't play girls that are going to florida instead of playing with the team play over her. "

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