NW4A Action this week (12-7-04)

Not as many games as last week but still some interesting matchups...

Tue Dec 7th:

McDowell @ East Rutherford
Hibriten @ Watauga
Highlands Tech @ South Caldwell
Newton-Conover @ East Burke
West Wilkes @ Alex. Central


Wed. Dec 8th

Owen @ AC Reynolds
McDowell @ TC Roberson


Fri. Dec 10

Enka @ McDowell
East Forsyth @ Freedom
Watauga @ Avery
South Caldwell @ Burns
Mooresville @ Alex. Central


Thoughts, opinions on these games...

 

I have some thoughts on Owen. I was disappointed. I thought they would be much better. I guess they graduated both guards, and the 6'5" center from last year? I thought the coach would pop a vein. Corrinne Groves did her share, however.

Even so, their boys' team is embarrassing. To have 6'10" Weaver and not even use him is a joke. He should be at some prep school. Their coach seemed to have no clue. That school seems to have a problem with sportsmanship, including the football team when they came to Shelby.

I'm not including the girls' basketball team in the sportsmanship thing.

Well, there's my 2 cents worth. Anybody up there want to take issue? Somebody needs to take control!

 

I am under the assumption that this years team at Owen is basically the same girls from last year, except the 3rd tall girl which she transfered to a private school. Maybe Reynoldsrocks can verify that for me?

As far as Owen, I don't think I would consider it being disappointing. I really see it as being the difference between 2A and 4A basketball. I remember the powerhouse Mitchell teams from the 90's. As good as they were (multiple 2A championships), they beat McDowell very few times. This Owen squad has no excuse for not making it to at least the regionals. Corrine Groves was awesome, absolutely nobody in 2A classification should stop her. McDowell played that 2-3 zone the entire game, and didn't make it easy for her, but she still scored 26 and 13 boards. Wake Forest found them a true star.

 

nice Groves......... and lookin forward to seeing the Lady Titans play ..well TONITE play at ERutherford!

 

Owen did lose one of their big girls to a transfer. Where she went I am not sure, I am also thinking they lost one of their guards to graduation. I am with you Bigdan about them, they will give the 2A teams fits this year. I know we played them when we weren't at full strength, but they gave us all we could handle. However, we refused to stop pressing them, and they just ate us up passing the ball to Groves for layups, until late in the game when we finally got them in a half court game. We have them again on Wednesday so it will be interesting to see if we press or not.

I also agree with the post about their boys team. We didn't face them when they had all their football players back, but Weaver didn't do anything against us. Actually he had 0 at halftime. They didn't use him at all (except to try to break our press) and why he was trying to bring the ball up I'll never know. Maybe it will be different Wednesday if their guards are back. It's not like we have ANY size to match up with him.

Oh well, good luck to the NW4A teams tonight and the rest of this week. Do the conference proud!

 

This McDowell/East Rutherford matchup is going to be more compeitive than in recent years. In the past, all McDowell had to do to win was to arrive in the gymnasium. Sorry to sound arrogant, but that was the truth. East showed signs last year of being a better team, mainly due to the fact that they have a new coach. Now, they got some good players to go along with the coaching change. The Lady Cavaliers went to the Bull City Classic down in Durham during Thanksgiving and beat a good 3A Durham Hillside and almost pulled off a major win against Victory Christian. All in all, even though McDowell should win with their depth and overall talent, it won't be one of those 50-60 point runaways from a couple years ago.

 

South Caldwell over Highland Tech by about 35 points tonight. SC has lost only once so far but has played a very weak schedual. I am afraid their nonconference schedual will not have them prepared for conference play.

 

WHS outwomans Hibriten

WHS 52
HHS 22

I don't even think Hibriten has a JV girls team and they have like 10 freshmen on varsity -- not pretty.

 

Well, sports fans, the impossible almost happened tonight. McDowell squeaked by East Rutherford 44-41.

This seemed to be a combination of a much improved Cavalier team, and a case of McDowell looking apathetic and lethargic. You know, they seemed to have the "blues" for some reason. Of course, the 2 inside post players for East are about 5'11" & 250. They tend to get position.

I will patiently await this rematch to see if things are different. I believe I would press from the word "GO", as the lulling half-court game is not McDowell's strong suit. Either way, a win is a win. These kind just give the fans heart attacks!

Congrats to East for stepping up several levels from the past! :applause:

 

I pretty much agree with the analysis. The score was 40-34 East Rutherford with about 3 minutes to go. The McDowell 10-1 run was the difference between a scare and a major upset. But I also think East deserves major kudos for the effort and the gameplan. This was one of those nights for McDowell where you take the win, quickly get on the bus and haul tail out of town, SCARY MY FRIENDS!!! :scared2: