BOYS-
The home Indians played arguably their best game of the season taking Rogers to the wire in a close game. It was fun to see Smith and Hassett spend another night ballin’ and trying to out do one another. Once again for North Central, Riley Smith dominated the court scoring 25 on all sorts of shots. His most impressive game this season he was relentlessly attacking the rim and finishing over and around want-to-be stoppers. Damian Carter did some good things tonight playing tough and composed on both ends. For Rogers, Jahlil Frans had a statement game, although doing most of his work early on, going hard at the rack scoring on short put backs and playing good, strong interior defense. As a first year Letterman Frans has the upside that the Pirate Purple can be happy about. Similar to Smith for NC, KJ Hassett led Rogers in scoring and probably assists and steals too. KJ is a little sneaky when he gets passed his first defender using his quick step then floating a shot from anywhere between 5-15 feet out, angles or straight away.
GIRLS-
For NC is was a game in which they dominated on the defensive end swarming around the ball and forcing turnovers by the under experienced opponent. They got a big lead early from Megan Dean getting a handful of steals and layups off of their traps as did Q McDeid. After that they sort of coasted to the win. Sunny Ellenwood played a strong game against the Pirates post players, able to get position and make post moves to score. She has a good game down low and can even hit some jumpers from the outside. For Rogers, Atyzha Upton was able to get going a little like we expected from her this season capping a coupe of threes and giving her team support on the press break. She has the talent to score the ball. Yvette Bailey showed flashes of what she is capable of, darting around the court causing trouble with NCs handlers. She wants to go after the ball and make plays on defense and is also prone to push the ball back on offense in transition and may become a spark for this team in due time.
