Coach Billy Gibson lost a lot of firepower off his 21-win squad of a year ago. His top three scorers all graduated, leaving him with a fairly inexperienced squad for 2016-2017.
Still, in West Springfield’s 58-40 victory over St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes Friday night it was easy to see the makings of a team that could become very deep and dangerous. Ten Spartans scored on the night and the ball movement was generally fairly crisp. Almost everyone contributed on the glass against the smaller Saints. It was baby steps forward after an opening night loss to a tough Chantilly team.
“We’ve got a long way to go,” Gibson said after the game. “I like some of the things going on, some young kids are doing some good stuff. We’re still young and finding our way–still figuring out who does what in our lineups. This is a tournament sport and we want to be ready at the end of January and February.”
Sophomore Molly Sharman is one of the younger players on his team, but she may be one of its leaders by late winter. After scoring 25 against the Chargers on Tuesday she pitched in with 10 last night. Her older sister Emma had 12 points and six rebounds, senior Sophia Shidlovsky had 12 points and six rebounds, and sophomore Alyssa Morroni had nine points and seven rebounds off the bench.
West Springfield (1-1) came out aggressive, pounding the glass and playing physical defense en route to an 18-6 first quarter lead. The Spartans continually got offensive rebounds and generally did not give the Saints second chances at their end. St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes (2-1), after easily defeating two far less deep, physical and talented teams than the Spartans earlier this week, did not seem ready for the physical nature of this game. West Springfield’s defense forced the Saints to put up wild shots early, and it looked like the game might be a blowout.
But veteran Saints coach Calvin Crenshaw regrouped his team, and St. Stephen’s/St. Agnes made it a game. A good free throw shooting squad, the Saints started to play with more aggressiveness and take the ball stronger to the hoop to get some calls. Senior guard Kelsey Dunn led the way, getting to the line 12 times and finishing with a team-high 18 points. After trailing by 14 at halftime, the Saints closed the margin to 41-35 at the end of the third quarter.
But the taller, stronger Spartans proved to be too much for the Saints. Junior Julia Burke led her team in rebounding with eight, but she fouled out with just under five minutes left in the game. At that point the Saints, already hard-pressed to contend with the host team on the glass, was just too out-manned to pull off the upset. Leading scorer Nicole Bolton, who averaged 22 points in her squad’s two prior wins, was pressured constantly by West Springfield’s defense. The talented senior managed 12 points, but it was on 2-15 shooting.
Crenshaw was understandably still reasonably pleased with his team’s effort. “We played a bigger, stronger team and we just have to get used to it,” he said. “Once we got used to it we were fine–after halftime we tried to press the issue a little bit and we took some early quick shots and got back in the ball game. Even our small kids rebounded in the third quarter. They have to–we’ve got some big kids in our league.”
West Springfield’s 47-27 rebounding edge, and ability to get to the free throw line 40 times to St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes’ 28, was essentially the difference in the game. The public school-private school match-up was an intriguing contrast of styles that Crenshaw would love to see again.
“If Billy wants to do it again we’d be more than happy to do it next year,” said the smiling coach. “I think he got a little worried there for a minute.”
–Chris Jollay
all stats are unofficial
| SPARTANS | FG | FT | TP | RBS | AST | |
| ELLSWORTH | 1-6 | 0-0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | |
| MEILLER | 0-5 | 1-4 | 1 | 9 | 2 | |
| M.SHARMAN | 3-6 | 4-6 | 10 | 4 | 2 | |
| E.SHARMAN | 3-18 | 5-6 | 12 | 6 | 3 | |
| SHIDLOVSKY | 5-9 | 2-3 | 12 | 6 | 1 | |
| Morroni | 2-7 | 5-10 | 9 | 7 | 0 | |
| Lowman | 2-5 | 0-0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | |
| Buckner | 1-2 | 2-4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | |
| Blesi | 0-1 | 2-2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | |
| #32 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| #25 | 0-3 | 1-5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | |
| #21 and #24 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Riddle | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| TOTALS | 17-64 | 22-40 | 58 | 47 | 10 | |
| SAINTS | FG | FT | TP | RBS | AST | |
| HARDING | 0-1 | 2-2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | |
| DUNN | 4-13 | 9-12 | 18 | 6 | 0 | |
| HOLLAND | 0-3 | 0-4 | 0 | 2 | 1 | |
| BURKE | 3-9 | 2-3 | 8 | 8 | 1 | |
| BOLTON | 2-15 | 6-7 | 12 | 3 | 1 | |
| Gourdin | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Cummings | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | |
| Owens | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| Alexandre | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| TOTALS | 9-43 | 19-28 | 40 | 27 | 3 | |
| West Springfield 3’s: Meiller 0-2, M.Sharman 0-1, E. Sharman 1-9, Lowman 1-3, Blesi 0-1, #32 0-1 | ||||||
| St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes 3’s: Dunn 1-3, Holland 0-1, Bolton 2-7 | ||||||