You’ve got to love high school basketball in February. Well, maybe you don’t have to…
We’re at the Giant Center in Hershey for District Three semifinals. Earlier, the Lancaster Mennonite girls destroyed Lampater-Strasburg 59-26. They’ll play Saturday here for the championship against the winner of the Northeastern-Gettysburg semi, which Northeastern leads 29-26 at halftime as we speak.
L-S, which has no seniors, might be a year away. Mennonite’s time appears to be now. The Blazers looked as impressive as any girls’ team I’ve seen in a while. I don’t see many these days, admittedly.
Observations about girls’ hoops:
The better teams can play faster than they used to. They push the ball via the pass much better, making catch-on-the-run plays that all but the best players used to be incapable of. They may not shoot as well, though. That’s probably a natural progression - the game is more about athleticism, less about skill…
Traveling is called more accurately in the NBA than in girls’ high school hoops. There are few forces on earth more powerful than girls’ officials’ apparent determination to call it. There are certain dribble-drive and pivot-and-go moves that are in effect illegal in the girls’ game. Hard to understand what benefit comes from that…
Girls’ basketball players don’t cry anymore. Used to be when a player fouled out in a big game, tears were probable. Post-game medal ceremonies after district or state finals were weepfests. No more. Not a complaint, certainly. Just an observation…
Forget the “may not shoot as well,” comment above. Gettysburg nailed four 3s, two of them NBA length, and two other tough jumpers in the last couple minutes to go from down five to up three with about 1:20 left. Then Northeastern’s best player drilled a hand-in-face three to tie it, 66-66 with :53.8 left…
With the game on the line, Gettysburg eschewed the jumpers and went to a slasher who got little one-handers in the paint, the latter with eight seconds left, to make it 70-68. Northeastern’s aformentioned star hit the rim with a 40-footer at the buzzer. G-burg by two. Very, very good stuff.
In other news: The local-TV airtime appears to be going to a shirtless gang with G-E-T-T-Y-S-B-U-R-G painted on their chests, but the belle of this ball is a male Northeastern fan sporting a full two-piece female cheerleader’s uniform with a bare midriff and short skirt. Just an extraordinary look.
