The Riverside Beavers and Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin Lions have built solid programs over the years with big-time defense and opportune offenses.
Game photos click here.
The Riverside Beavers and Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin Lions have built solid programs over the years with big-time defense and opportune offenses.
As they begin the new season, both are rebuilding in a big way, and nobody will ever see the teams play with less than total effort.
The Beavers have a big edge, though, in a place that counts — the experience side of things — and that proved to be the difference as Riverside claimed a 38-25 victory in McGarry Gymnasium.
Riverside had one big edge, too, in senior forward Savanah Laurenty. Combined with another senior forward, Sarah Fulton, the duo made more big plays when they were needed to shut down the young Lions.
Defense was the forte for both teams. That said, as both teams turned the ball over 20 times, shooting became an issue, and if you don’t put the ball into the hole enough, you don’t score and usually will lose.
NDCL (1-3) could never get anything going offensively after that first-period tie at 11-11. The Beavers switched from a zone defense after that quarter to a pressing man-to-man, and the Lions scored only three points in the second period. They fell behind at the half, 23-14, and totaled only 11 more points in the second half alone.
Hitting only seven of 37 shots will not help the cause, but NDCL Head Coach Pete DeMichele was thrilled with how his girls played defense against a perennially tough-scoring Riverside team.
“I’m not really disappointed with how the girls have played so far,” he said. “The enthusiasm from the first day of practice has been outstanding. Consider that we’ve only had about 30 days together, and none of the girls have had varsity experience to be able to play at this level.
“Our goal is to play great defense (and) to hold teams to under 40 points if we can, but offense has been our problem so far. But I couldn’t ask for a better group of girls to work with as a first-year head coach. We just need to keep working to develop our own identity on the court.”
Many teams would be downcast after losing a game like this, but this pride of Lions was celebrating their coach’s birthday with doughnuts and cookies after the game — a good indication that there are no sour feelings so far.
Junior Mia Trusso scored all five third period points for the Lions on her way to an eight-point night, and senior Giovanna O’Brien made the inside play interesting with nine rebounds and four blocked shots.
Laurenty’s 19-point, 15-rebound night was just too much to deal with. Shooting less than 20 percent is also not a winning formula at any level.
Not for a second, though, did the Lions look to be tired or dazed. They just couldn’t get the ball to go into the hoop often enough.
