Eagles Demolish Griffins 70-2
By Trevor Reed
The Christian Learning JV Girls basketball team soundly defeated a determined Griffin team, leaving no doubt that the Eagles are the undisputed league leaders. They played aggressively the entire game, stealing numerous passes and scoring consistently on breakaways. The only question left is whether or not there is any chance of a Jaguar victory when they meet the Eagles for the second time.
In the first quarter, Eagle Maria Anderson started the scoring with two quick baskets. The Eagles never looked back. They maintained a full court press for the entire game, restricting the Griffins immensely. Oftentimes there were at least three Eagle defenders crowded around the opponent when the Griffins managed to get the ball. Eagle Emily Ordoñez was deadly, blocking passes and stealing the ball left and right. The Eagles kept the Griffins scoreless, ending the quarter at 16-0.
In the second quarter, the Griffins started their own (less successful) full court press strategy. The two aggressive defenses quickly led to all ten players grouped together, following the ball around the court. Still, the Eagles kept up their pace, while the Griffins remained scoreless. The first half ended at 28-0.
When the third quarter started, many fans expected the Eagles to back down slightly and give the Griffins a fighting chance. No such thing happened, and the Eagles continued to fight for every loose ball. They scored an impressive 20 points, and the quarter ended with the score at 48-0.
The Griffins were finally able to score in the fourth quarter with two free throws, but this did not slow down the Eagles. Anderson, Ordoñez, and Rebecca Escudero were unstoppable, scoring quickly and efficiently. At one point, the Eagles combined their shooting and ball-stealing skills to score three baskets in the course of about ten seconds. Needless to say, the Griffins were in over their heads, and the Eagles coasted to a 70-2 victory.
Jaguars Win Decisively Over Knights
The Cooperative girls junior varsity girls basketball team overwhelmed Cambridge 53-8 in a game played at Cambridge Tuesday, further dramatizing the fact that the JV girls division has been divided into two echelons.
In the top echelon are Christian Learning and Cooperative, both blessed with outstanding and experienced players, who frequently beat the teams in the second echelon, namely Cambridge and International, by margins of 50 points or so -- sometimes more.
It has become an issue in the League as to whether games should be stopped, and the leader declared the victor, when margins reach a certain point in the second half, for example. The question has come up in several instances whether some schools in the League can continue to compete in certain sports where they seem doomed to take perennial drubbings from the stronger teams.
Others argue that this is just a phase in which the League must pass through when some teams are able to reach a skill level previously unattainable by any of the teams in the League, and so competition has become unfair and, well, congenitally "unsportsmanlike" when strong and weak teams collide. This situation obtains not just in JV girls basketball, but in other sports as well, at both the JV and varsity level.
A short history lesson may be in order. Over time the teams have "changed echelons," if you will, at a fairly rapid pace. Last year Cambridge had one of the top JV girls teams, to cite just one example. The core of that team moved up to the Cambridge varsity this year leaving the JV without a nucleus of tested and proven players.So this year it is among the worst.
The one group that has not been heard from is the players themselves. Even when getting a thrashing, the players often seem to be enjoying the game, and only in rare instances to they seem to give up, even when victory is clearly out of reach.
Consider the Cooperative- Cambridge game, the supposed subject of this article. It was hotly contested to the end, though it was clear from the opening period, when the Jaguars jumped out to a 19-0 lead, who would win. The teams kept fighting as the Jaguars, consisting of players who have been participating on the team for several years and endured the good seasons with the bad, took a 31-2 lead at halftime, and a 45-2 lead after three quarters.
In the fourth quarter --showing, who knows? what could be a paradigm of things to come -- the Knights played the Jaguars second string almost evenly, being outscored only 8-6. For the record, Cambridge's eight points in the game represented its high point total for the year.
Giuliana Varalta of the Jaguars was the top scorer in the game with 22 points. Andrea Chavez 13, Alexandra Cadario six, Analee Davis four, J. Pena four, and Nathalia Media four.
For Cambridge, R. Pinto had four, P. Perez 2, and M. Silvana 2.
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