2010 NCHSAA State Sectionals: Sectional Final

Any predictions on the seedings for the final 4 teams? I bet the following:

McDowell vs Butler
East Meck vs Lake Norman

When will the matchups be announced?

 

I think they will have the pairings done sometime during the weekend. The Regional Press Conference is being held Monday morning. Normally they try to keep teams from the same conference from playing each other in the semis.

 

Hopewell and McDowell was well worth the admission tonight in Huntersville. As The Warden said in an earlier post, this team just finds a way to win ball games. These girls and coach Franklin have done an excellent job in coming together.


The game was close all of the first half, McDowell got a little momentum going into the second half and built the lead to as high as 12 points. But in the 4th Hopewell showed why they are a quality team. They went from down 10 to up 1 in a matter of four minutes.

It could have been easy for McDowell to get down and never recover from that substancial lead but they continued to fight and got the game into overtime. It was like McDowell had won the battle by drawing even after 32 minutes, because in the OT, we regained all composure and kept Hopewell scoreless as they were 0-11 in the overtime session.

Meanwhile Jaalen Corpening carried us offensively in the OT making the only field goal of the extra session along with 5 of 8 free throws during the four minute span.

The senior combo of Corpening and Xandi Gellman has really stepped up their game in the past week-plus.


I am so happy for the girls and their accomplishment...and I am looking forward to the Regionals in Greensboro.

 

Thanks for the support, congrats to the Lady Rockets on a very good season. Good luck to Taylor, Brinkley and the other seniors on this year's squad.

 

Did I read the Charlotte Observer correctly?

Mcdowell - 27 free throws
Hopewell - 0 free throws

What in the world happened in the game that lead to that disparity? That is incredible - and very hard to understand.

 

The Lady Titans Basketball team plays a very clean, classy, high character style of play. I can say that with knowledge, I have coached against the core group of girls (Gellman, Ward, Gallion, Medford, Corpening, Thomas, and Webb) for years through AAU/YBOA. I have watched many of their middle and high school games. Although, the Lady Titans were my competition I enjoyed watching them play. Good Luck Girls, and yes they could have 27 free throws and other team zero. Fouling is not a part of their game.

 

Yep, you read it correctly...I think our focus on the interior led to the number of foul shots, Hopewell's perimeter oriented game lends to less foul shots...that said you would think at some point they would accidently make their way to the stripe. The first half foul total was Hopewell 8 and McDowell 6. So we had just worked our way into the bonus and Hopewell was a foul away from getting to the line. Neither team made the bonus in the second half if my memory serves right.



18 of the 27 foul shot attempts for McDowell came after halftime. 12 of those 18 were in OT. Corpening was fouled on three occasions driving to the basket late. 8 more came in the final minute when Hopewell was intentionally fouling. So that makes 14, the other 4 involved interior play.

I only remembered of one charge/block scenario the entire game, so that outta tell you that there was a premium on guards attacking the lane. McDowell had variations of zone all night and Hopewell went mainly zone 2nd half.

There really wasn't much transition basketball by either team, the game was decided in the half court.




Back to the question...I can't pinpoint the exact reason why Hopewell never got to the line?

 

Makes sense bigdan. I agree with you, in that I would expect every team to get to the line accidently at some point during a game. I looked at www.nchsaa.org to see how many teams had shot 0 free throws in a game but it was not listed.

Another question - it appears that the original games for next week had Butler playing East Meck. What led to the change? Did someone goof, did someone complain, etc...

 

I'm betting the NCHSAA for some reason updated their webpage early to include the brackets and then they updated the actual matchups when the drawing was done...I'm sure for some people that led to confusion from late morning till mid afternoon. I had someone call me this morning to let me know they were already out and was shocked when I saw Butler and East in the same pod. The NCHSAA has always had the policy of re-drawing after the sectionals...

 

Interesting

Attached is a cut and paste from the Charlotte Observer's Langston Wertz, Jr.

I always enjoy reading the two different sides to particular games or events.


Charlotte Observer

The theme of the night in Friday's sectional finals for several Mecklenburg County teams was officiating. They felt like they were on the short end. Butler's girls had star players play less than half the game against Greensboro Dudley. East Meck did, too, with Virginia Tech recruit Monet Tellier only playing 10 of 32 minutes against Winston-Salem Reynolds.
But Hopewell's girls shot no free throws against McDowell and the Titans shot 27. That one had me scratching my head.
Mecklenburg County teams do generally play a more physical brand of ball than many other surrounding counties, and when you get to the playoffs with out-of-town referees, it can be problematic. I hope, though, the kids decide the upcoming regionals, not the guys with the whistles.