Seton wins with defense
By BEN TRITTIPOE
For the News & Messenger
Published: March 3, 2009
If there are teams in the Virginia Independent Schools State Tournament that have not scouted the Seton School girls’ basketball team lately, they might be in for a surprise.Published: March 3, 2009
The Lady Conquistadors have been known in the past for their long-range shooting. While that aspect of their game has not gone away, another has developed — stingy defense.
Seton used the latter to break the game open early against visiting Denbigh Baptist Tuesday in Manassas and the Lady Conquistadors cruised to a 62-48 victory in the first round of the VIS Division 2 tournament.
Seton (20-7), seeded No. 7 in the VIS Division 2 tournament, advanced to a quarterfinal matchup with second-seeded Highland School today in Warrenton. The semifinals and finals of the tournament will be held Friday and Saturday, respectively, at Paul VI High School in Fairfax.
Senior Mimi Myers led Seton with 13 points, while classmates Sarah Sewell and Danielle deLatour added 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Junior Ann Duran came off the bench to score nine points for the Lady Conquistadors.
Kimberlyn Schindler had game highs of 17 points and eight rebounds to lead Denbigh Baptist (14-12), the No. 10 seed. Jo Stevenson added nine points and Liz O’Brien contributed eight for the Lady Minutemen.
The Lady Conquistadors struggled to find their shooting touch early in the contest Tuesday, but they made up for it with strong defense. Seton forced Denbigh Baptist into 15 turnovers in the first half, converting many into layups en route to a 34-15 advantage at intermission.
“We’ve worked hard on a match-up defense the second part of the season, and they’ve really taken to it,” Seton head coach Dick Pennefather said.
“It confuses teams at first because they’re not sure if we’re playing man or a zone. It’s been very successful for us and, sub-consciously, I think it’s given the girls an edge because they’re confident it will work.”
“The key is we try to deny everything,” Myers said of the defensive strategy. “It was really working, and it helped us get that early lead.”
Myers, deLatour and Sewell combined to outscore Denbigh Baptist 15-2 in the first four minutes of the third quarter, with Sewell’s breakaway layup giving Seton a 49-17 lead with 4 minutes 20 seconds left in the period. Pennefather began to substitute liberally at that point, and the Lady Minutemen — behind 11 fourth-quarter points from Schindler — rallied late to close the gap to the final 14-point margin.
Pennefather’s late-game strategy had something to do with keeping his starters fresh for Wednesday’s quarterfinal round. Highland defeated the Lady Conquistadors in the Delaney Athletic Conference championship game Saturday, and he hopes things will be different today.
“We’ll see if we show up offensively this time against Highland,” Pennefather said. “They got us rushing our shots in the DAC final. We need to be sure to get good looks [at the basket] with time to knock down the shots. I’m just happy we have the opportunity to play them again.”
So is Myers.
“We just need to relax,” Myers said of Seton’s strategy against Highland. “We were tired [in Saturday’s final] after playing Friday, and everyone panicked a lot. We just need to take this game as a fresh start, approach it like it’s the first time we’ve played them. If we do that, I think we can do well.”
Advertisement
View More:
No tags are associated with this article
Not what you're looking for? Try our quick search:
Advertisement