The Starting Five

Saint James senior stalwart athlete Mike Russ will attend St. John Fisher in Rochester, N.Y.

The Herald-Mail Boys Basketball All-County Player of the Year, Russ will take his talents to the Division III school, which went 17-10 last season. St. John Fisher competes in the Empire 8 Athletic Conference.

Head coach Ron Kornaker will be in Hagerstown next week for the official signing.

Well, a long day of basketball — 5 games worth — is in the books and puts the lid on the 2008-09 basketball season. I think today pretty much did it for me. I don’t think I’ll worry about covering any more hoops action until November.

Roundball Classic organizer Dave Foltz didn’t feel to well to begin the day, under the weather like so many of us have been lately. However, he had to be feeling better at the end of the night after pulling off the 5-game affair along with the 3-point shootout and slam dunk competition — and everything pretty much ran to schedule with a great group of volunteer help.

I was somewhat surprised at the attendance in one regard.

Right here in our own back yard at Hagerstown Community College, the top seniors in the region converged on HCC. Sure, there were all the parents, interested coaches, college scouts and a spattering of interested basketball junkies that certainly got their fill of action.

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We’re through the first two games of the fourth annual Roundball Classic here this afternoon at Hagerstown Community College.
Clearly, we have the most outstanding performance displayed from a local girl.
Morgan McIntire, from Heritage Academy, gained most valuable player honors for the American team in a 57-52 victory over the Nationals in the Four-State Elite girls game. McIntire had 17 of her 21 points in the second half and hit three 3-pointers.
In the opener, the American team beat the Nationals 70-54 in the boys Shooting Stars game.
Right now at the half, the Americans lead the Nationals 37-26 in the Four-State Elite boys game.

There are a few people here today — not as many as I thought — but then again you’ve got the NCAA tournament games on television.
Still, there is special skills and two more games yet to go.

Bruce Zimmerman, the boys basketball coach at Walkersville High School for seven seasons, has resigned as coach of the Lions.

He had spent 18 years as JV coach and as an assistant to Tom Dickman at Thomas Johnson. In his seven years at Walkersville, Zimmerman’s teams won four Piedmont titles and made it to the state semifinals in 2005.

Zimmerman, known for carrying his white towel every second of every game, has dealt with other issues off the basketball court that have taken a tremendous amount of time and effort. Those of you that know him well know what they are.

Who knows whether he’ll return to coaching basketball — he’ll be missed.

City is as good defensively as advertised. To hold North to 39 points, and just 16 in the second half, is quite an achievement. North didn’t play very well offensively, but part of that was due to how well City played: Very few turnovers on offense (meaning North had no opportunities in transition), and they clamped down inside defensively, forcing North to shoot outside, which the Hubs didn’t make enough of.

North finishes 23-3. A great season even if it did have a disappointing end.

North shoots 2 for 8 and commits 11 turnovers in third. City shoots 5-for-21, only thing keeping the Hubs even remotely close.

So much for City’s quickness being the main problem: North can match that. And North has handled the pressure pretty well. But the Hubs can’t get anything going inside offensively at all against City’s size (which is actually having more of an impact than I expected) and City controlled the glass in the second quarter during a 13-4 run that gave the Knights a 31-18 lead.

The Hubs have been forced to shoot primarily from the perimeter, and aside from Kirksten Mitchell’s two 3s and nine points (including a strong drive for a three-point play) and a surprise 3 from the top of the key by LaRae Allen, the 3s are not falling. North shot 2-for-15 in falling behind 16-8 after one quarter and is 7-for-28 at the half. The Hubs have made just 3 of 15 3s. That’s 15 of 28 shot attempts outside the arc … that’s the main problem. City is 14-for-36 and has done it in all ways: 3-pointers, pump fakes, a power dribble and then a shot, transition baskets and inside putbacks.

Unless North’s 3s start to drop, or they can find a way to get out in transition and get some fast-break points (City only has five turnovers, that’s not good enough defense for North), I don’t like the way this game is going for the Hubs.

North got  nice ovation from the students sitting in the end seats on the side of North’s bench. Nice to see.

City College is not as big as River Hill, even though they have five 6-footers and a couple of them are thick. But City’s whole team looks really quick and athletic. Makes sense considering they’re only giving up 33.8 points per game. The question is, how much basketball skill do they have to go with all that quickness.

North looks focused. Not too many laughs or smiles. City’s the same way.

I won’t have time to give quarterly updates but I will give a halftime report.

River Hill improves to 27-0 and will face the North Hagerstown-City College winner Saturday at 1 p.m.

River Hill made 34 of 60 shots, Parkside 11 of 47. Yikes.

No sense in continuing the play-by-play, it’s jut a one-sided rout. River Hill has too much depth, too much size, too good a defense. The 2A East region (and the southern Eastern Shore area) must be pretty weak. Parkside has some individual athletes but no teamwork — they look like they’ve never seen a pressure defense — and they’re getting picked apart.

Des River Hill have any weaknesses? Seelaus and Dannelly don’t need the ball to be effective, they just have to crash the glass, and with their size, they’ll get their points and rebounds. Seelaus also is athletic enough to create her own shot. Oliver, Vega and Collier can all shoot if given space. So you have to pick your poison. I’d rather get beat by the outside shot than by inside layups, and take my chances on the glass. Then you have to deal with River Hill’s pressure.

Should North get to the final, LaRae Allen is going to have to have a great game on the glass, and the Hubs will have to keep the turnovers under control. They’ve been pretty good against pressure all season — they have a lot of capable ballhandlers and passers — but they haven’t seen pressure like River Hill’s.