Orlando Comets

(KB - 07/13/05) The Comets Red team endured their worst lost EVER this afternoon after being pasted by the Georgia Metro Nike Elite team, 93-59. Even boys AAU team teams have not beaten the Comets Red by such a lopsided margin. The Comets, who are now 63-2 on the year, have never lost to any girls team by more than 13 points.

SG was at this game and we were amazed not so much by the magnitude of the loss but by the method in which it was inflicted. The Comets led this game by a score of 15-1 two minutes into the game. The game looked like five thousand other wipeouts the Comets inflicted on bigger but unsuspecting foes. The girls were pressing and getting easy baskets. The Metros looked confused and disorganized.

But if there was an unsuspecting foe on the court today it was the team from Orlando. After falling behind by 14 points, the Metros stormed back. They started hitting jumper after jumper. And when the defense extended to challenge the jumpshooters the Metros lobbed the ball inside to Mya Moore, whose precise moves in the paint befuddled the usually sure-handed Comets center Krystal Thomas. By the time Krystal swung to block Mya's shots the ball was already lacing thru the nets. Mya shoots on the way up, not at the top of her jump.

Georgia took a 47-34 halftime lead. Still, we thought the Comets would prevail. They'd been playing their subs while the Metros made their comeback. We expected a different scenario when the Comets' starters re-entered the game.

Nope.

The Metros scored the first 11 points of the second half to blow this game open. The Comets guards committed turnover after turnover in the face of nominal pressure. The Comets coaches instructed the guards to get Krystal involved in the game. Every possession the Comets guards would penetrate and loft the ball up to Krystal as she curled to the basket. The Metro girls simply leapt up and grabbed the alley-oop pass out of the air. The planned play never worked. Krystal only scored once all game.

More than this, the Metros pounded the Comets on the boards. The Comets, never too big to begin with, simply could not cope with their beefy players in the middle. The Red team is missing power forward Jordan Coleman at this tournament. She is preparing for D1 AAU 14U Nationals in Virginia and cannot also play D1 here. The Red team is also missing forward Sharece Taft. She tore her ACL a month ago and is out indefinitely.

Every time the Comets mounted a mini-run, Metros guard Janay Stokes(#12) would lace a silky trey through the nets. Janay finished with 20 points and hit five 3-pointers. Mya Moore was unstoppable in the paint, finishing with 25 points.

For the Comets, Brooke Thomas and Alexa Deluzio finished with 14 points apiece--mostly in the first half. None of the Comets players were effective in the second half.

It was an historic loss.

But the Red team did not stay down for long. In the second game, the Red team missed Krystal--who dashed off to attend the Adidas Top 10 camp. (She'll be back for the second day of bracket play). The Comets guards stepped up and ran away from the Tennessee Elite, 72-44. Stephanie Thomas led a determined effort with 20 points as the Comets exploded defensively in the second half to seal the win.

The Red team is now 3-1 in pool play with a final game against the Ohio Blaze scheduled for tomorrow. The Comets must win that game or lose by less than 9 points to secure second place in Pool I.

2005 AAU 16U Pool Play Scores

(The photos to the right are of this year's 16U class when they were 13U players in 2002)