Womhoops Guru

Mel Greenberg covered college and professional women’s basketball for the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he worked for 40 plus years. Greenberg pioneered national coverage of the game, including the original Top 25 women's college poll. His knowledge has earned him nicknames such as "The Guru" and "The Godfather," as well as induction into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Philly Summer League: St. Joe's Shields' 29 Fires Hunter Green Back Into First Place

By Mel Greenberg

HATBORO, Pa. --
Saint Joseph's senior Erin Shields, one of several Hawks having a great night on various teams, set a season-high for individual performance with 29 points to power Hunter Green over Team White in a competitive 66-60 win Wednesday to grab a 1-2 showdown and return to first place by a half-game in the Philadelphia/Suburban NCAA Women's Basketball Summer League at Kelly Bolish Gym, home of the AAU Renegades.

Kathleen Radebaugh was on the scene with the Guru temporarily sidelined for an early doctor visit Thursday and she may be filing a more detail report on that specific game.

Hunter Green (6-1) fell from the top of standings a week ago Tuesday when Gold pulled an upset but the win over White (5-1) means for the first time in at least three seasons there won't be any unbeatens at the finish.

Shields, voted the most improved player in both the Atlantic 10 and Big
Five last winter when Saint Joseph's won the conference title and rteturned to the NCAAs for the first time since 2000, nailed three 3-pointers and was a perfect 14-for-14 from the foul line.

The previous high for the season in the league was the 27 points scored on opening night by former Division III Swarthmore star Kathryn Stockbower on Heather Grey.

Shields was one of five players scoring 20 or more points Wednesday and she and Division II West Chester's Brittany Sicinski of Sky Blue, who had 20 points Wednesday, have each reached the milestone four times this season.

Kathleen Fitzpatrick, an incoming Hawks freshman, scored 12 points for Hunter Green, which has little time to celebrate during what is a rare three-night marathon with the insertion of Wednesday's games to make up for last week's lost Thursday, which coincided with the July 4th holiday.

Hunter Green comes right back Thursday to play Purple (5-1), which moved into a second-place tie with White by edging Kelly Green 60-59 in the night's closest outcome.

Catherine Carr, a former Division II Holy Family star, had 23 points for White, while Jasmine Elum, a former standout for Bethune-Cookman, scored 14 points.

In Purple's thriller, Liz Sharlow, a Lehigh sophomore, scored 18 points, while Meg Gallagher, a senior at Division III DeSales, scored 10 points, and Division III Gettysburg sophomore Jessica Porter scored nine points.

Brittany Wood, a Division III Delaware Valley junior on a Kelly Green (3-4) squad dominated by the Holy Family contingent, had seven 3-pointers on the way to 21 points, while Tigers senior Carolyne Heston scored 17 points, and Mary Ellen McCollum, a Tigers junior, scored 13 points.

Team Gold (5-2), which fell to White on Tuesday, stayed among the leaders a game back in third-place tie with Sky Blue (5-2) by being the beneficiary of winning the first forfeit of the season sufered by 12th-place Royal Blue (1-5).

Sky Blue, dominated by West Chester players, romped to a 59-41 triumph over winless Orange (0-6) on Sicinski's 20 points, while Golden Eagles junior Kendall Benovy scored 14 points, past Delaware student Taylor Bryant scored 13, and incoming West Chester freshman Emily Torrance scored 11 points.

Rachel Falkowski, an incoming freshman at Division II East Stroudsburg, scored 13 points for Orange, while Ryann Fiascki, a junior at East Stroudsburg, scored 10 points.

The two other games are listed in the capsule roundups below while Black, dominated by Division II Philadelphia University players, had the nightly bye, which will be enjoyed by Sky Blue Thursday.

Longtime Commissioner David B. Kessler, now in his 20th season running the league, says that even with the addition of a 13th team this season, the rosters are totally maxed with no more room for addiitional players.

Looking Ahead

Finishing the marathon three straight nights, Hunter Green has little time to celebrate its return to the top after week's absence as it completes its three-game crunch by facing third--place Purple Thursday night at 8:15 p.m. on Court 2.

Black and Red, both knotted at 2-4, meet each other at 7 p.m. oon Court 3. The two teams are near the border of the eighth playoff spot, all of which will be finalized July 30th following the completion of regular season competition.

After this week, five nights of regular-season competition will remain thru July 30th to determine the eight playoff teams and seeding position, as mentioned.

Thursday's complete schedule with team records is listed next followed by a list of next week's action.

Thursday, July 11

7 p.m. Maroon (4-3) vs. Kelly Green (3-4), Court 1
Orange (0-6) vs. Gold (5-2), Court 2
Red (2-4) vs. Black (2-4), Court 3

8:15 p.m.Navy Blue (2-4) vs. Heather Grey (2-5), Court 1
Hunter Green (6-1) vs. Purple (5-1), Court 2
White (5-1) vs. Royal Blue (1-5), Court 3
Bye: Sky Blue

Tuesday, July 16

7 p.m. Sky Blue vs. Heather, Court 1
Hunter Green vs. Navy Blue, Court 2
Purple vs. White, Court 3

8:15 p.m. Maroon vs. Gold, Court 1
Orange vs. Black, Court 2
Red vs. Royal Blue, Court 3
Bye: Kelly Green

Thursday, July 18

7 p.m. Kelly Green vs. Gold, Court 1
Maroon vs. Black, Court 2
Orange vs. Royal Blue, Court 3

8:15 p.m.Sky Blue vs. Hunter Green, Court 1
Navy Blue vs. White, Court 2
Purple vs. Red, Court 3
Bye: Heather Grey

Wednesday Overall Recaps With More Detail

Maroon 53, Navy Blue 46: The winners (4-3), still alone in sixth place with the triumph and dominated on the roster by Division II University of the Sciences of Philadelphia (USP) , got 14 points from six-year Devils major Brianne Traub, 12 from 2018-targeted graduate Natalie Stella, and 10 from incoming freshman Isabella Ross.

Saint Joseph's sophomore Ciarra Andrews scored 24 for Navy Blue (2-4), the third time she's scored 20 or more points, while Geena Gomez, an incoming Hawks freshman, scored 11 points.

Red 61, Heather Grey 51: The winners (2-4), dominated by Division III Scranton players, stayed in the hunt for a playoff spot as Noelle Alicea, a Royals sophomore, scored 15 points, and Sarah Payonk, an incoming Scranton freshman, scored 11 points.

Brittany McLeod, a 2009 graduate of Division III Cabrini, scored 17 points for Heather Grey (2-5), Rachel Baskin, a Division III Haverford senior, scored 12, and Kathryn Stockbower, the former Swarthmore star who holds the Division III career double double record, scored 10 points.

Hitting the Milestone

As mentioned, Saint Joseph's senior Erin Shields had a league-high 29 points in bringing Hunter Green back to first place. Several others reached the individual 20-points or more standard with Purple's Brittany Sicinski of West Chester gaining 20 making it the fourth straight night she reached the performances of honor.

Briittany Wood scored 21 for Kelly Green in the narrow 60-59 loss to Purple, while Navy Blue's Ciara Andrews of Saint Joseph's had 24 in a 53-46 loss to Maroon.

Former Holy Family star Catherine Carr had 23 for White in the loss to Hunter Green.

Explaining the Standings

This time around the standings are still in their natural tiebreaking state for the moment in terms of seeding order if regular season play ended today, though not everybody has yet to play the same number of games because of the nightly byes.

Right now Hunter Green is alone through records while White for the moment gets the secoond seed over Purple with a better win, having beaten Gold, since the two have yet to play head-t0-head.

Gold and Sky Blue are tied for fourth but Gold would be the fourth seed on a head-to-head win over Sky Blue.

Maroon and Kelly Green follow standing untied based on records.

In the three-way tie for eighth, which will sort itself out, but for now, among the trio, Navy Blue at 1-0 within the group, gets the eighth seed, Red is ninth at 0-0, while Black is 10th at 0-1.

The bottom three teams stand alone on record.

The running grid is now in proper order to look at tiebreakers for seeding and making the eight-team field, though while the big gridlocks have been reduced to small knots, enough games are left to either create some headaches at the pre-playoff finish or everything may be resolved without much angst caused to the commissioner and the Guru, his standings consulting officer.

Also, continued special thanks to Tom Utescher for providing pictures that will enable this report to switch over to being housed in PhilahoopsW and a duplicate of the Tuesday report here is now over at http:philahoopsw.com to see what the future of coverage may be..

The Guru will tweet @womhoopsguru photos and coverage at philahoopsw are in play.

Standings

Team, Won-Loss, Pct., GB, Pts., Opp. Points

1-Hunter Green, 6-1, .857, ---, 475, 431
2-White, 5-1, .833, 0.5, 384, 292
2-Purple, 5-1, .833, 0.5, 354, 329
4-Gold, 5-2, .714, 1.0, 345, 320
4-Sky Blue, 5-2, .714, 1.0 , 458, 395
6-Maroon, 4-3, .571, 2.0, 362, 373
7-Kelly Green, 3-4, .429, 3.0 , 425, 436
8-Navy Blue, 2-4, .333, 3.5, 315, 351
8--Red, 2-4, .333, 3.5, 343, 334
8-Black, 2-4, .333, 3.5, 330, 352
11-Heather Grey, 2-5, .286, 4.0, 392, 397
12-Royal Blue, 1-5, .200, 4.5, 258, 326
13-Orange, 0-6, .000, 6.0, 249,361

Running Grid
This becomes the tracking tie-breaker and seeding guide in a few weeks for the eight-team playoffs, which will begin after the regular season ends July 30.

1-Hunt. G. vs. Red (W), vs. Orange (W), Maroon (W), vs. Kelly G (W), vs. Gold (L), vs. Black (W), vs. White (W)
2-White vs. Red (W), vs. Orange (W), vs. Maroon (W), vs. Kelly Green (W), vs. Gold (W), vs. Hunt. G. (L)
2-Purple vs. Gold (L), vs. Black (W-OT), vs. R.B (W), vs. N.B. (W-OT), vs. Sky B. (W), vs. Kelly G (W)
4-Gold vs. Purple (W), vs. N.B. (L), vs. Sky B. (W), vs. Heath. Grey (W), vs. Hunt G. (W), vs. White (L), vs. R.B. (W-Forfeit)
4-Sky B. vs. Maroon (W), vs. Kelly G (W), vs. Gold (L), vs. Black (W), vs. R.B. (W), vs. Purple (L), vs. Orange (W)
6-Maroon vs. Sky B. (L), vs. Heath. Grey (W), vs. Hunt G. (L), vs. White (L), vs. Red (W), vs. Orange (W), vs. N.B. (W)
7-Kelly G. vs. N.B. (W), vs. Sky B, (L), vs. Heath. Grey (W), vs. Hunt G. (L), vs. White (L), vs. Red (W), vs. Purple (L)
8-N.B. vs. Kelly G. (L), vs. Gold (W), vs. Black (W), vs. R.B. (L), vs. Purple (L-OT), vs. Maroon (L)
8-Red vs. Hunt G. (L), vs. White (L), vs. Orange (W), vs. Maroon (L), vs. vs. Kelly Green (L), vs. Heath. Grey (W)
8-Black vs. R.B. (W), vs. Purple (L-OT), vs. N.B. (L), vs. Sky B (L), Heath. Grey (W), vs. Hunt. G (L)
11-Heath. Grey vs. Orange (W), vs. Maroon (L), vs. Kelly G. (L), vs. Gold (L), vs. Black (L), vs. R.B. (W), vs. Red (L)
12-R.B. vs. Black (L), vs. Purple (L), vs. N.B. (W), vs. Sky B. (L), vs. Heath. Grey (L), vs. Gold (L-Forfeit)
13-Orange vs. Heath. Grey (L), vs. Hunt G. (L), vs. White (L), vs. Red (L), vs. Maroon (L), vs. Sky B (L)

Top Individual Peformances (20 or more points)

29 Pts.: Erin Shields, Hunter Green, (W) vs. White, July 10
27 Pts.: Kathryn Stockbower, Heather Grey (W) vs. Orange, June 18
26 Pts.: Brittany Sicinski, Sky Blue (W) vs. Black, June 27
25 Pts.: Brittany Sicinski, Sky Blue (W) vs. Royal Blue, July 2
25 Pts.: Erin Shields, Hunter Green (W) vs. Red, June 18
25 Pts.: Erin Shields, Hunter Green (W) vs. Orange, June 20
24 Pts.: Ciara Andrews, Navy Blue (L) vs. Maroon, July 10
23 Pts.: Katie Kuester, Hunter Green (W) vs. Red, June 18
23 Pts.: Catherine Carr, White (L) vs. Hunter Green, July 10
22 Pts.: Alyssa Bonenberger, Royal (L) vs. Purple, June 25
22 Pts.: Kelsey Watson, Royal (L) vs. Sky Blue, July 2
21 Pts.: Kendall Benovy, Sky Blue (W), vs. Black, July 2
21 Pts: Ashley Wood, White (W) vs. Kelly Green, July 2
21 Pts.: Erin Shields, Hunter Green (L) vs. Gold, July 2
21 Pts.: Ciara Andrews, Navy Blue (L-OT)., vs. Purple, July 2
21 Pts.: Brittany Wood, Kelly Green (L) vs. Purple, July 10
20 Pts.: Ciara Andrews, Navy Blue (W) vs. Black, June 25
20 Pts.: Camille McPherson, Maroon (W) vs. Red, July 2
20 Pts.: Brittany Sicinski, Sky Blue (L) vs. Purple, July 9
20 Pts.: Brittany Sicinski, SkyBlue (W) vs. Orange, July 10

Till next report

-- Mel


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home