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DEC 27TH: FREEPORT VS VSC |
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VSC 10 - 21 - 30 - 47, Freeport 12 - 23 - 35 - 45. Playing in the large gym in the Lady Devils' Varsity Basketball Tournament, Freeport opened the game up with an 8 - 0 run and appeared ready to run VSC right out of the gym. Give Coach Parisi credit as she called timeout and settled her team down. After the timeout, they scored the next 6 points to get right back into the game. The rest of the quarter would see both teams race up and down the court, with both teams missing numerous opportunities to score. VSC's Lisa Serrano and Sahara Maragh did a nice job of attacking the interior of Freeport's defense. Freeport, when they slow the pace down and ran their half court offense, ran most of their early offense through Breanna Cook in the post. In the second quarter, Sha'Mane Matthews started to dominate at both ends of the court as she altered VSC shots, blocking 5 while scoring 6 points. Freeport struggled offensively playing without outside threat Nicole Thomas. Despite their inside height advantage, Freeport could only open a 2 point lead at half. Late in the second quarter there were some tired legs on the floor as neither team really utilized their benches, even if to just spell the starters. VSC 's defense held Freeport scoreless for over 3 minutes in the second quarter forcing Freeport to settle for outside shots. VSC would go up 21 - 18, only to see Freeport score the last 5 points of the half, regaining the lead 23 - 21. The third quarter opened with both teams struggling to score before VSC tied the socre at 23. Freeport would outscore VSC 10 - 0 over the next 3 minutes to go up 33 - 23. The key to this run was Freeport finally recognizing the inside advantage they had in Cook and Matthews and committing to it. VSC would pull to within 4 as they turned to the press to disrupt Freeport from setting up their half court offense. The period would end with Freeport up 35 - 30. Freeport came out and scored 4 points to extend their lead to nine with 5:17 to go. At this point, VSC had yet to score and I noted that perhaps VSC had gone too long with some of their starters sitting. Over the next 2 minutes, VSC would outscore Freeport 11 - 2 to tie the game with 3:21 remaining. Freeport's inability to capiltalize on VSC not being able to score for almost 3 minutes would came back to haunt them. Freeport would grab the lead two more times and looked ready to seal the victory but VSC would have none of that. With 27 seconds to go, VSC Jesse Renard stole the ball and scored to even the game at 45. The winning basket was the result of VSC's press, their press lead to a jump ball giving VSC possession. VSC called timeout to set up an inbounds play, off which Renard scored with 4.5 seconds to go. Freeport's desperate attempt fell well short at the buzzer. Freeport's style is very similar to Roosevelt in that they both have inside players that can dominate a game but they also like to run. Problem is that when they run they both have a tendency to turn the ball over at a very high rate. VSC isn't going to impress you with their athleticism, what they will do though is scrap and battle on every possession.
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