January 24, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Lady Tigers victorious against Kangaroos
by Justin Goldman

The Germantown Friends School girls basketball team got back on track with a 63-25 victory over defending league champion Abington Friends on Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 15. Though the Kangaroos are the defending champions, they are not the same team, due to graduation and transfers of star players.

The Tigers attacked the Kangaroos lack of size from the get-go by getting the ball down low to senior forward Marisol McKee. AFS really had no answer for her down on the block, and McKee continuously had her way with the smaller defenders. She had eight points in the first quarter en route to a 17-6 Tiger lead. The lead could have been even bigger had GFS been hitting from the outside, but the home team could not knock down any of its open threes.

“We are better when we move the ball,” said GFS head coach Tom Myran. “Marisol has been strong all year, so our game-plan didn’t change all that much. Since they didn’t have size, they tried to help out down low which led to us getting some nice perimeter shots.”

GFS effectively put the game away in the second period, outscoring Abington 13-2 for a 30-8 halftime lead.

Though the game was basically decided, the Kangaroos did not pack it in. In fact, they turned up their full-court pressure defense which frustrated the Tigers a little bit in the third quarter.

It was important that the Tigers continued to move the ball,  find open teammates and stay aggressive offensively  in preparation for the Friends league playoffs.

“We didn’t want anyone to get passive,” Myran said. “We had moments in the second quarter that we were so much looking for each other that we didn’t take advantage of other opportunities that players had created.”

Though the result of the game was a forgone conclusive, it was imperative to Myran that the Tigers continue to execute and stay sharp on offense and defense for the future.

“We need to continue to grow and be able to be sharp and diverse offensively and defensively because that is what we need to do if we are going to beat Friends’ Central when we play them, or Shipley if we play them again.”

McKee led the Tigers with 22 points while freshman Julya Loder added 10, and senior forward Talitha Smith put in 9. Nina Voith also added 8 for the Tigers.