Girls hoops sees slow post-holiday stepoff
While many teams took part in holiday tournaments, such as the Queen of the Palms event held throughout Southwest Florida, the North Fort Myers High School girls basketball team took a pass, deciding instead to rest.
But when the team returned to action on the road Monday against Cape Coral, it looked slow and sloppy against a team that had played during the break although the Red Knights have been playing well.
Despite a shallow bench and lack of experience beyond the starting five they went into 2015 with a 10-5 mark.
McKenna Beach scored 27 points and added five rebounds and three assists as the Seahawks crushed the Red Knights 61-38.
Deidre Cheremond added 11 points and 12 rebounds as Cape Coral never trailed, built a double-digit lead in the opening quarter and never looked back.
In defense of the Red Knights, the team played without its starting point guard and dressed just eight players.
For third-year head coach Jessie Crane, that was no excuse as her squad got blown up from the beginning and until now had overcome adversity.
“We came out slow and made some mistakes early on that we couldn’t come back from,” Crane said. “They’re a tough team and we didn’t come out the way we needed to.”
Crane eschewed the Christmas tournaments for a Thanksgiving one instead, and with kids coming and going during break, such as point guard Casey Zorbis, who is coming off a knee injury and did not play Monday.
“Practices were up and down throughout. I think that had a lot to do with it and it hurt us tonight,” Crane said. “We need to work on a lot of things in practice.”
Crane has had the benefit of having five seniors in her lineup, which has made up for the low numbers at the varsity and junior varsity levels.
Katelyn Kelly (15 points, 12 rebounds) and Lindsay Stramel (14 points, 10 rebounds) are four-year varsity players who lead the offense, and they have solid average numbers on the season.
“We’re working better as a team and we just have to work harder in practice. We haven’t been together during the break,” Stramel said. “We miss our point guard, but we still have to go out and play. We’ll get there.”
Crane hopes the team will get back in shape in time for districts in two weeks for what could be its last shot to contend for a championship, as the window of opportunity is closing on this group.
“We have players who won the district as freshmen, so we lose a lot of experience, leadership and talent,” Crane said. “It will be a whole new team next year.”
The Red Knights woke up after the Cape Coral loss the following evening at Ida Baker with a 72-42 victory that upped their mark to 11-6 before getting some much-needed practice in before yet another road Monday against Port Charlotte.