Saturday, January 02, 2010
Tremor or Tsunami?
Melrose hosts Reading Tuesday in a battle of unbeaten Middlesex League teams.
Melrose enjoyed total domination over Reading for much of the past decade, sweeping the series from at least 2000-2007 during Coach Dave Brady's reign. The Lady Raiders always seemed to have whatever it took to win, big plays down the stretch (Shannon Kirwan at Reading in 2003 comes to mind), unexpected production despite injury (e.g. Marianne Foley out at Reading in 2004), or just superior talent.
Something changed. Reading's athletic juggernaut keeps producing athletes, and Reading turned the tables in 2007-8 with two of three wins including the postseason, and the Lady Rockets captured both games last season with a senior-dominated team.
In addition to a quality youth program producing talent like freshman Olivia Healy, classy Coach Kim Penney's program has undergone its own paradigm shift. While Melrose has had some exceptional basketball players, the foundation of the program has always been team basketball. Reading's offense revolved around a series of 'core players', sequentially Jen Shoemaker, Justine Lyons, and Mary Silvia. Simply, if you could contain the stars, then you could beat Reading. Now Reading has developed a more diversified style of offense, such that they no longer rely on one player to carry the load. Certainly, Jackie Lyons was huge for them last season, but they also had Cat Carey, Alison Staiger and others, who could rise to the occasion when given the opportunity.
Additionally, Penney has spent plenty of time with area college coaches developing kryptonite for Melrose's offense that Reading has seen for the past decade. Reading incorporates elements from the successful Bentley program and others with good effect.
This season, Reading relies on Carlene Kluge as their principal scorer, but they have senior defensive stalwarts in Kamy Forlizzi and Desh Perera and future potential All-Scholastic players in freshmen Healy and Morgan O'Brien.
Melrose counters with senior leadership and production. Senior co-captains Hannah Brickley, Colleen Hanscom, and Siena Mamayek have held the fort while co-captain Laura Irwin recovers from a volleyball injury, and Melrose has gotten strong production from AnneMarie Wiesen on the boards and some key hoops from off guard Lia Limone. Melrose's reserves haven't been called on much so far to step up, but with Reading jamming the passing lanes, Melrose may need some outside shooting from seniors Nicole Meuse and Amanda Peters.
Last season Reading prevented Melrose from getting to the basket and forced the Lady Raiders to struggle with the shot clock and to take lower percentage shots, holding Melrose to 47 and 39 points respectively. Melrose will need to maintain good spacing and discipline, and try to capitalize on Reading's youth and aggressiveness to identify play-making opportunities backdoor and from the wings to recapture the advantage.
Only time will reveal whether the past two season represent tremors or a tsunami.
Melrose enjoyed total domination over Reading for much of the past decade, sweeping the series from at least 2000-2007 during Coach Dave Brady's reign. The Lady Raiders always seemed to have whatever it took to win, big plays down the stretch (Shannon Kirwan at Reading in 2003 comes to mind), unexpected production despite injury (e.g. Marianne Foley out at Reading in 2004), or just superior talent.
Something changed. Reading's athletic juggernaut keeps producing athletes, and Reading turned the tables in 2007-8 with two of three wins including the postseason, and the Lady Rockets captured both games last season with a senior-dominated team.
In addition to a quality youth program producing talent like freshman Olivia Healy, classy Coach Kim Penney's program has undergone its own paradigm shift. While Melrose has had some exceptional basketball players, the foundation of the program has always been team basketball. Reading's offense revolved around a series of 'core players', sequentially Jen Shoemaker, Justine Lyons, and Mary Silvia. Simply, if you could contain the stars, then you could beat Reading. Now Reading has developed a more diversified style of offense, such that they no longer rely on one player to carry the load. Certainly, Jackie Lyons was huge for them last season, but they also had Cat Carey, Alison Staiger and others, who could rise to the occasion when given the opportunity.
Additionally, Penney has spent plenty of time with area college coaches developing kryptonite for Melrose's offense that Reading has seen for the past decade. Reading incorporates elements from the successful Bentley program and others with good effect.
This season, Reading relies on Carlene Kluge as their principal scorer, but they have senior defensive stalwarts in Kamy Forlizzi and Desh Perera and future potential All-Scholastic players in freshmen Healy and Morgan O'Brien.
Melrose counters with senior leadership and production. Senior co-captains Hannah Brickley, Colleen Hanscom, and Siena Mamayek have held the fort while co-captain Laura Irwin recovers from a volleyball injury, and Melrose has gotten strong production from AnneMarie Wiesen on the boards and some key hoops from off guard Lia Limone. Melrose's reserves haven't been called on much so far to step up, but with Reading jamming the passing lanes, Melrose may need some outside shooting from seniors Nicole Meuse and Amanda Peters.
Last season Reading prevented Melrose from getting to the basket and forced the Lady Raiders to struggle with the shot clock and to take lower percentage shots, holding Melrose to 47 and 39 points respectively. Melrose will need to maintain good spacing and discipline, and try to capitalize on Reading's youth and aggressiveness to identify play-making opportunities backdoor and from the wings to recapture the advantage.
Only time will reveal whether the past two season represent tremors or a tsunami.
// posted by Ron Sen, MD, FCCP @ 9:04 AM 
