Huskies

Now that our successful regular season has concluded, the Huskies enter the playoffs as a team all opponents must regard seriously. We have improved each game. All 5 of our losses, (4 to the 1st and 2nd place teams), were by the slimmest of margins. We have welcomed 4 new players onto the team (2 of which playing their first season of basketball). Best of all, our girls work together as a team. Libby and I have worked hard to produce a positive experience for each girl. Unlike a couple of our opponents, we don't maximize the playing time of our best players at the expense of our less skilled or less experienced players. Every girl has played a full two quarters of every game. In games we have been shorthanded, we have divided the playing time so each girl has had the maximum opportunity to contribute and develop. The success of the Huskies in 2002 is that all 10 players have improved dramatically these past 4 months, they treat each other and their coaches with respect and likely will continue playing basketball for the rest of their lives. I know some of the girls' moms (perhaps dads too!) wish they had that kind of positive experience when they were young! Go 'skies !! Woof ! Woof !

The Webmaster has created an O'Connell Tournament homepage with the following information: . Tourney brackets, with match-ups, game times, etc. . First round match-up summaries . A tourney poll where anyone can predict the winner of the tournament -- you, your parents and your players can now be a French skating judge if you want by voting shamelessly for the home team! Just click on the spinning trophy to go to the O'Connell Tourney homepage.

Avenging an overtime loss to the Lady Knights just two weeks ago, the Huskies wrapped up an undisputed claim to 4th place in the regular season standings and the #4 seed in the O'Connell Tournament. To read the game summaries and player awards from this weekend and all other games, just click on the title to this article or the spinning basketball.

The Huskies avenged their February 1, overtime loss to the Lady Knights with a come from behind thriller in which the outcome was in doubt until the final buzzer. The two teams entered the game tied for 4th place with 4-5 records. The Lady Knights came roaring out of the blocks in the first quarter building a 9-1 lead. However, thanks to Sally, Jackie and the 2nd quarter team, the Huskies held their opponent to 2 points and narrowed the deficit to 11-10 by half-time. Rachel, Ailey, Clarissa and the 3rd quarter team improved dramatically on their 1st quarter performance by holding the Lady Knights scoreless while taking the lead on Ailey's heads up assist on Clarissa's bucket in the lane. The Lady Knights scored first in the 4th stanza, but it was to be their last score as the fleet footed Ashley and Sally thwarted Veronica's fast break and numerous other scoring opportunities. The Husky heroics were provided by Nataly, who scored twice off of wonderful inbounds passes by Jackie. The first was under the Huskies basket. Nataly broke from the stack to the corner, caught the pass and sent an arching rainbow shot, tickling the twine for the game winning shot. The resulting one point lead left the result very much in doubt until Jackie's brilliant inbound pass delivered from the far sideline to the open Nataly who dribbled and scored the lay-up with less than a minute left in the game. The Lady Knights responded with numerous shots that just wouldn't drop, reminiscent of the Huskies frustration during the teams' first meeting. The Huskies were lead by Sally who scored 7 points, pulled down 8 rebounds, had 4 steals and attracted double and tripled teams each time she was fed the ball. In addition to her 4 points Nataly collected 6 boards and 4 steals. Our other tower of strength, Clarissa chipped in 3 points, 5 rebounds and 5 steals. While serving as point guard for the 2nd and 4th quarters, Jackie scored 2 points, gathered 2 rebounds and lead the team with 8 steals. Our other point guard, Rachel made numerous smart passes and drives toward the basket in addition to frustrating the Lady Knights guards with her tenacious defense which produced at least 2 boards and 3 steals. Our shooting guards Ailey and Ashley complemented their partners by executing give and go passes on offense and neutralized the talented Lady Knight guard tandem of Stephanie and Veronica. Ashley had rebounds and 2 steals, while Ailey had 2 rebounds and 2 steals. Our forwards, lead by Nataly, shined by staying home, Guarding The Yard, thus preventing Stephanie and Veronica from penetrating our zone or dishing the ball off to their forwards. Leah C-F collected a board and 2 steals. Leah T grabbed 3 boards and a steal. Perla played her best game of the season by "staying home" and opportunistically leaping to bat down passes and record an unassisted steal and collect 3 rebounds. Heads-Up Award. The coaches presented Nataly with the Heads-Up award, for her timely execution of our inbounds plays and scoring the last 4 points of the game. Nataly also provided us with the injury scare of the game as she went down hard, hitting her head on the floor, after being tripped guarding Veronica. Fortunately, Nataly reentered the game after a short rest and provided her late game heroics! Hustle Award. Perla earned the Hustle Award for her unselfish team play demonstrated by her greatly improved team defense as she quickly ran the floor to get back on defense and stayed home in the zone, which prevented the Lady Knights from scoring easy buckets near the basket.

Similar to the game the previous evening versus the 1st place Chill, the Huskies were shorthanded in their 23-19 loss to the 2nd place Rockets. The Rockets sprinted to an early 10-0 lead at the end of the 1st quarter and lead by as much as 23-10 with 2:10 left in the 3rd quarter. The Huskies valiantly battled back to scored the game's final 9 points, but the 1st quarter deficit proved to be too large an obstacle to overcome against such a talented and disciplined Rockets team. Fighting off the effects of the flu from the previous evening, Sally spent every bit of her energy in 2½ quarters of play, scoring 6 points, collecting 11 rebounds, 9 steals and blocking two shots. Just think of how she could have played if healthy! Rachel returned from her sickbed Friday evening to play as hard as she could in two quarters of play. The Rockets prevented a reoccurrence of Rachel's career game, in the teams' first meeting earlier this season, by double-teaming her. Rachel did a fine job of dishing out passes to teammates and earned 5 steals. With our guard ranks depleted by Ailey's absence, we needed Jackie to step-up and play despite entering the game with a 100 degree temperature. Jackie gave her all playing tough defense, stealing the ball 9 times, blocked 2 shots, gathered 5 rebounds and scored 4 points in 2 quarters of play. Thank heavens again for our shooting guard, Ashley, who showed her stamina by playing the entire game for the second consecutive day and allowed us to "limit" Rachel and Jackie to two quarters each. Ashley scored 6 points (all banked neatly off the backboard!), collected 2 rebounds and 3 steals. With so many girls missing, we asked our forwards to play 3 quarters each. Perla hustled on both ends of the floor, fought for rebounds and caught numerous passes from her teammates. She also had her first point of the season taken away on a dubious free throw line infraction call. Leah C-F played her 2nd consecutive big game at small forward. Leah "stayed home" on defense to provide the last line of defense against the Rockets' taller forwards, where she blocked a shot, garnered 5 rebounds and collected 2 steals. Leah also made the game's highlight reel with her 1st career basket (also banked neatly off the backboard!)! With Clarissa and Leah T out, we needed to rely on Nataly as we did in Friday night's game versus The Chill. Nataly gave her all by playing 1 ½ quarters at center and the remainder of the game at forward, where she held her own against a taller opponent in gathering 9 rebounds, 4 steals and registered a blocked shot. Leah C-F, Nataly and Ashley played huge roles in both of the weekend's games. All three of you showed tremendous improvement since the beginning of the year. We are proud of all of our Huskies, for their effort in playing so well despite fatigue and illness. Hustle Award. Ashley was awarded the Hustle Award for her second consecutive full game effort. She was very quick in getting back on defense during Rocket fast breaks and teamed with Rachel and Jackie to steal the ball from the talented Rocket guards. Heads-Up Award. Sally was presented the Heads-up Award for her excellent defense characterized by her 9 steals, 2 blocked shots and 11 rebounds.