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ROOSEVELT TOWERS OVER ISLAND TREES |
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Tuesday - Dec. 18th: Roosevelt 12 - 23 - 38 - 58, Island Trees 19 - 26 - 36 - 45. Island Trees opened the game with a 5 - 0 run, to which Roosevelt responded, tieing the game at 5 with 5:46 to go. Over the next 4 minutes, Island Trees would outscore Roosevelt 11 - 2 to go up 16 - 7. During the run, Island Trees connected on 3 threes and was dominating the boards, especially at the offensive end. Point guard Nakita Green (transfer from Cardozo) scored at the buzzer to pull Roosevelt within 7. In the second quarter, Island Trees went up 24 - 13 and had Roosevelt scrambling at the defensive end. Roosevelt then inserted Samantha Corbitt along with Shanice Bibbs and the complexion of the game turned. Roosevelt's defensive confidence grew as Corbitt dominated the paint. Island Trees had no answer at either end - offensively they settled for outside shots, which started to fall short and at the defensive end they had no one to defend Corbitt in the paint. Over the last 4 minutes, Roosevelt outscored Island Trees 10 - 2 to close to within 3. With Island Trees concentrtating so much on defending the post, Roosevelt's Denise Crawford was just getting started as she would score 9 of her teams 15 3rd quarter points. Roosevelt grabbed their first lead of the game on corner jumper by Crawford with 5:51 left. Island Trees continued to struggled as they went 3 minutes without scoring. Everytime Roosevelt appeared ready to blow this game open, Island Trees refused to go away. The third quarter ended with Island Trees only down by 2. In the 4th quarter, the wheels came off as Island Trees appeared to run out of gas. The inside (Corbitt)/outside (Crawford) game was too much down the stretch of the game. Roosevelt would pull away to win 58 - 45. The addition of a true point guard such as Green will allow Roosevelt's wings Crawford and Donna K Henry to not have to worry about handling the ball as much, while Corbitt, Bibbs and Cherry are going to give oppoenents fits in the paint. When Simone Thomas (out wirth knee injury) returns, Roosevelt is only going to be that much tougher. Coach Crummell's biggest worry might be when his team gets into an uptempo game - they tend to turnover the ball at a very high rate, where as yesterday Green was able to settle the team - find her open teammates and eventuallly wore Island Trees Ahrens down. Island Trees will be in every game they play as long as Ahrens stays on the court running the point, Megan Biondolillo can drop those long range threes and get to the basket as she attempted to do yesterday. It was good to see her back playing at 100%. Island Trees is going to need Alysha Ciaramitaro, Ashley Moore and Angelika Paskins to contribute as they have in the early part of the season. Question is which of the players on the bench are going to step up and provide a much needed reprieve for the starters as the season moves along?
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