Other than shooting percentage, there are perhaps no better indicators to the outcome of a basketball game than turnovers and rebounding - more specifically, offensive rebounding.
On Wednesday evening, the Jamestown Red Raiders racked up (or in the case of turnovers, created) gaudy numbers in both statistical categories and, not surprisingly, won their Erie County Interscholastic Conference Division 1 girls basketball battle with visiting Orchard Park (1-5, 0-2) going away, 73-55, at McElrath Gymnasium.
Not a bad way to start off the new year.
Article Photos
Jamestown’s Dazjah Coleman (34) and Maxine Williams (30) go up for a rebound during Wednesday’s ECIC?Division 1 basketball game. See additional photos at cu.post-journal.com.
P-J photo by Rob Tucker
"It was a great way to start the new year, absolutely," Jamestown's first-year varsity coach Mark Nugent said with a laugh. "I had hoped (the season) would be going this well, and so far, so good."
Jamestown, which is now a perfect 3-0 in league play and 6-2 overall, won the war of the boards by a 2-1 margin over the Lady Quakers, hauling in 61 total rebounds. Of that total a whopping 36 were at the offensive end, which was easily a season-high.
The offensive rebounding, in fact, was the first thing that Nugent highlighted when discussing the victory.
"Did you see about the rebounds?" he asked. "That was the key. To have 36 offensive boards in a high school game is really unheard of; our girls really stepped it up tonight."
That tally, combined with a classic Jamestown full-court pressure defense that created 21 steals and forced Orchard Park to turn the ball over 29 times, gave the Red Raiders a very high probability of victory by halftime as they jogged into the locker rooms with a hefty, 16-point advantage, 42-26.
"We had a lot of turnovers and I definitely think the press had an effect on us," Orchard Park coach Josh Dannecker said. "We actually brought it back to (nine) points in the third quarter, and then things kind of fell apart on us again (from there)."
Jamestown finished the first quarter with a 6-0 run to build a five-point lead, 17-12, and ended the second on a 7-0 spree. To that point, the Lady Quakers strung together more than two consecutive baskets without an answering bucket on just one occasion, but they started the third quarter with a pair of triples (by the squad's leading scorer, Noelle Poloncarz, who finished with 16 points) and a putback to cut the deficit to nine, 45-36.
The Red Raiders, however, kicked it into high gear from there, surrendering just four more points over the next 5 minutes while netting 14 to take a 61-40 lead into the final period.
"We talked about (finishing strong) tonight," Nugent said. "We wanted to focus on not letting up at all and pushing as hard as we could the whole game. Tonight they did that."
Annie Campion, who led Jamestown with a game-high 22 points, and the rest of the starting unit sat for much of the fourth period, allowing other Red Raiders an opportunity for some extended playing time.
Along with Campion, who also made four steals, Karisha Tapia-Carmona tallied 19 points with six steals; Peyton Butts netted seven points, including the team's lone triple in the first quarter that gave the Red Raiders the lead once and for all , to go along with eight rebounds; Haley Davis had seven boards; and Rosa Velazquez, the senior point guard, had six points, six assists and eight rebounds.
Jamestown will look to remain unbeaten in league play on Friday when it hosts Lancaster (4-1, 2-0). Tip-off is at 7:30 p.m.
ORCHARD PARK (55)
Poloncarz 6 1 16, Michael 2 2 4, Hannah 5 0 11, Modkins 3 1 7, Probst 3 0 6, Swiatek 2 2 7, Shaffner 0 2 2, McKendry 1 0 2. Totals 22 8 55.
JAMESTOWN (73)
Campion 9 4 22, Green 2 2 6, Tapia-Carmona 9 1 19, Butts 3 0 7, Velazquez 2 2 6, Coleman 1 1 3, Williams 3 0 6, Davis 2 0 4. Totals 31 10 73.
3-point goals: Poloncarz 3, Hannah, Swiatek, Butts.
Orchard Park12 14 14 15 - 55
Jamestown17 25 19 12 - 73
Jayvees: Orchard Park won.