RICH KELLY
SAYBROOK TOWNSHIP — Coming into Wednesday night’s battle between the SS. John and Paul Heralds and Lakeside Dragons, there were not a lot of positives either Heralds coach Nick Iarocci and Dragons coach Rob Livingston, could focus on for their teams if all you did was look at won-lost records.
On paper, you would not expect to see much of a basketball game between the teams.
The teams did play the game at Lakeside. While not a premium effort basketball-wise, it was a near masterpiece in effort for both teams. When the final horn sounded, the Dragons took the game, 54-35.
Showing improvement has been vital for both teams as they endure a season of learning. For the Heralds (3-14), there were some positives on the offensive side of the court by simply being aggressive.
“I challenged the girls before the game,” Iarocci said. “I asked them, ‘why not play our best game tonight?’ We were a lot better than we have been lately, especially with our effort.
“We may not be the most skilled team or have the best athletes, but our effort should always be top rate. We did some good things, like breaking their zone press tonight, but they have better athletes, and we couldn’t handle their man press in the second half and it cost us.”
Coach Rob Livingston was pleased with his girls.
“Handling the press has been our Achilles’ heal this year,” he said. “We worked hard on it the last two days, and the aggressiveness paid off great tonight. We adjusted to what they did, and it worked.”
The man press led to the majority of the 38 Herald turnovers in the second half. There just wasn’t enough offense for SJP to stay in the game.
Nicole Gallo paced the SJP attack with nine points. Carly Penna and Ashley Fedler each added seven, but the Heralds got off only 36 shots, a tough way to win a game.
Conversely, the Dragons (4-10, 1-7 in the Premier Athletic Conference) crashed the boards all night, and while not shooting well, netting just 19 of 65 attempts, they kept the ball in play enough to score enough to stave off Herald comebacks.
Megan Frye was the only Dragon with double digits, netting 14 points to go with eight rebounds and a trio of steals. Summer Kelly came off the bench to add nine points, while Dianna Moore added eight.
Regarding the boardwork, Sallie Christian led with nine. Frye and Shaniqua Bell each had eight, Taylor Lampela had seven and Moore snared six as Lakeside won that battle.
