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Photos Patricia Farrell
Zach Luster sets game-high personal record of 36 points at Cape & Islands Christmas Classic. |
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Derek Menangas wins sportsmanship award at Xmas Classic. |
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PHS b-ball teams show strong
at holiday tourneys
Patricia Farrell
Banner Correspondent
Last week Provincetown was very well represented by both the girls and the boys basketball team in the holiday basketball tournaments in Mashpee. By winning their first round games against tough opponents, both squads worked their way into the championship games.
In the Lady Falcons Tournament, the girls first faced Cape Tech. After a very flat start, Coach Jamie Colley made a decision to “pound” the ball inside to senior center Nikita Eddy. The move paid off. Eddy responded by scoring a game high 18 points and PHS went on to notch their third win of the season. Caitlin Tobias and Jennie Schmidt each chipped in six in the 37-26 win.
In the championship game on Friday the girls just missed taking home top honors, losing 40-39. In this one, PHS guard Melissa Lomba (13 points) and Eve Rose (9 points) were the ones to step up.
“My guards had their best games so far this season,” Coach Colley said. Since Lomba had the hot hand, sinking three treys, the last second inbound play was drawn up for her to try another one to tie the game. So, with PHS trailing 40-37 they got the ball into Lomba, who hoisted it from beyond the arc. The shot just missed and Nikita Eddy (8 points) got credited with the two point put back.
Coach Colley looked again to dismal foul shooting (just eight of 25) as a big part of the difference in this one. “We’re good at drawing the fouls, but it doesn’t help if we can’t convert our foul shots.” Coach Colley went on to commend the work of eighth grader Janino Marinho who was a demon on the defensive boards.
At 3-3 PHS girls are still in the thick of it. They next travel to Hopedale on Saturday.
In the first game of the Cape & Islands Christmas Classic the Fishermen came out and played what boys coach Ned Oliver described as their best game thus far. Everything was clicking for the up-tempo squad while they went to their tried-and-true method of freelancing the fast break off the steal. Tyrone Phipps (29 points) and Zach Luster (16 points) led the scoring.
However, this kind of up-tempo, running style — with such a short bench and in back-to-back games — proved to be a bit too much and fatigue definitely became a factor.
With Chatham coming off a big win against a much larger Nauset squad and Provincetown having already taken care of schools like Easthampton and Hopedale, the championship game, which was held the following night, might well have been dubbed the battle of the giant killers.
With Phipp’s output curbed due to a head cold, Coach Oliver switched Luster from point guard to forward. Luster responded to the move with a whopping, game-high 36 points. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to put PHS over in the 80-63 loss.
The move of Luster to forward necessitated inserting Luis Hernandez alongside Derek Menangas at the guard positions. “It gave us good overall speed,” explained Coach Oliver. And, after being down by as many 13 in the second half, PHS swarmed down to tie it at 57 with just five minutes left.
Coach Oliver admitted to thinking that at that point they had the game in hand. Chatham, however, had too many fresh legs.
“It’s the roller coaster experience of being a coach,” Oliver said, referring to the high of the night followed by the disappointing result in the championship game.
Phipps with 13 points and Alex Rokicki with nine points helped round the Provincetown scoring.
This week the 4-2 boys travel to Carver on Wednesday and Hopedale on Saturday.
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PHS Sports
Nauset Sports |
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Jan 6th, 2005