sports@southwesttimes.com
DUBLIN – For the second straight season, the Lady Cougar basketball program and Pulaski County High School hosted a successful Scrimmage Jamboree. The day’s action saw eight girl’s varsity and two girl’s junior varsity programs compete. In the end though, the day saw several hard fought performances from both the Pulaski varsity and junior varsity programs.
“I think that the experience on the court today was very successful for us,” said Cougars coach Jason Grubb. “I think we played three good teams and matched up well with them. I think did a lot of things well and a lot of things not as well as we want to. So today was all about learning who we are and figuring out what we need to do in the next two days on Monday and Tuesday to prepare ourselves for the first game, which is William Fleming.”
Each team in the tournament played in a unique format. They would only play two eight-minute quarters. Also, fouls would count as 1 point for the team receiving the foul, unless the foul was committed late in the quarter.
Pulaski’s varsity program opened up play in two of the first few opening contests in the tournament. The Lady Cougars first action of the day was against another set of Cougars with the same initials – Patrick County. After a tight contest all the way through, it was Patrick County who would win after the two quarters, 27-26. Sydney Anderson and Shaniqua Banks both had four points in the opening game, while Maddie Chitwood, Hannah Chaffin, and Daisy Ball all had two points.
A few games later, the Cougars would meet former Blue Ridge District foe Lord Botetourt. In what would be yet another close contest, the Cougars would be on the winning side this time, 34-31. Banks played strong again, scoring six points. Marlena Morrison added five points and Sydney Anderson and Hannah Chaffin both had four points.
After playing two of the earlier games, the Cougars were forced to wait out most of the rest of the tournament before getting back into the action. A change of schedule led to them playing against both the Narrows junior varsity and varsity programs instead of Bland.
“We want to play first and last because these other schools are gracious enough to travel here,” Grubb said. “We don’t want someone to come in early and leave late. We try to get everybody in and out as quick as possible and then of course, we ask that our players help us set up the gym and clean up the gym and stuff like that. That is just the way it is done. We were probably a bit rusty and a little cold.”
After the long break, the Pulaski junior varsity squad was in their first action since the Floyd County scrimmage. The team came out and used strong defense to impressively work their way to a 21-2 lead after one quarter. Savannah Jones had five points in the early lead.
The Cougars frustrated the Green Wave with a barrage of steals and baskets off of a game-time defensive change by JV coach Tiffany Payne. She was pleased with her team’s defensive skill and ability to work together.
“They have been working a lot on transition and getting completely set up into their press,” said JV coach Tiffany Payne. “Normally, most teams are so used to running back after making a basketball from, but these girls have done really well at staying up the floor and giving the right amount of pressure that they need to and they are actually reading off of each other on defense. So they are able to get those steals and get those easy baskets and they are keeping their heads up when they get those steals so they see their teammates up ahead of them. They are very team oriented and are really looking for each other and not out for themselves.”
The Cougars JV squad continued to impress and led 29-6 after the second quarter. The score would be reset after that and the team’s played two more six-minute quarters. After starting out with a 5-0 lead, the Cougars would give some points back to Narrows, which led to the score being tied 6-6. However, Pulaski once again pulled out and scored 12 straight points, winning the second session 18-6.
“The best thing that I saw from my team was that from the first scrimmage we had to this scrimmage they came together more as a team,” Payne said. “They played hard as a group. That was the biggest change. At the very beginning, they were not worried about what each other was doing. This game, they came out, kept their heads up, they looked up the floor, they played well as a team, and they listened.
Following the impressive junior varsity performance was a varsity two quarter session between Narrows and Pulaski. Unlike the junior varsity game, both teams would remain fairly close. It would be 8-6 Pulaski after one quarter of play.
Heading into the second quarter, the Cougars would pull out to a large lead, 17-9. The Green Wave would fight back though, scoring a lay up and causing two Cougar fouls to get back in the game, 17-14.
With just 43.7 seconds left, the two teams would be tied 23-23. Both teams would fail to convert on opportunities to take the lead. Yet another chance for Narrows to win would be blown, as the in-bound would be intercepted by Kasey Holcomb and throw the ball under the basket to a wide open Sydney Anderson, who connected on a lay up as time expired.
“It is just fun” Grubb said. “It is a scrimmage. Whether you win or lose is not the biggest deal, but it makes you feel good when you win. It is just an exciting moment for the whole team this year. You can see that we played six quarters today and every one of our kids got to play in every one of them. Every one of them got experience and got to show what they can do. We found out what we need to work on.”
Coach Grubb believes that one of the more important benefits coming out of the tournament was that the Cougars got a live look at their regular season opening opponent for Wednesday, William Fleming.
“We did get to see William Fleming play and they’ve got a talented group,” Grubb said. “They already have a college signee. One of their players signed with Marshall University. They are going to be a tough bunch, but I think if we take what we accomplished today and improve on it a little bit, we can be in position to beat them.”
At the end of the day and tournament, many of the coaches from the teams who participated were pleased with the tournament festivities and their inclusion into the action.
“I think it is a nice basketball atmosphere, said Cave Spring coach Jessica Ficarro. “It is always nice to see this many girl’s competing in one gym. Basketball is a great sport. Coach Grubb does a very nice job of putting everything on. It is very organized. You do get to see some great teams in action, whether they are in your district or not. You may eventually see them if you have a pretty good season. Like any tournament, things can get off track as far as time. I think today went really smooth. We are happy we got to play three different teams.”
“I’m just happy that someone local has taken it upon themselves to do something like this,” Narrows Coach Wayne Gautier. “For a small school like us, we don’t have many opportunities. Jason Grubb has been really well and I told him if they were going to do anything to call me. We are just happy to be a part of it. It is real well run. It also gives the officials a chance to get ready for the season. We are pleased. We came to play and just to try work on some stuff and see what we need to work on. It’s a good run tournament. I’m very proud we are part of it and hopefully we can continue it.”
Grubb was also pleased with the outcome of the second of these tournaments in two such seasons.
“I want to say it was a very successful ‘Jamboree’,” said Lady Cougars varsity coach Jason Grubb. “I think all of the coaches were very thankful in being included in this. They really enjoy coming here. I talked to my kids about it and they were excited to be here. It was just nice to have scrimmages where there was a bunch of teams and a bunch of players in the gym.”
(11-31-09)
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