Lior Klinger ,12/20/2005
Anda Ramat Hasharon will finish year 2005 undefeated. Raanana Hertzeliya is still trying to work Shameka Christon into the offense and was not ready to play the best team in the league, but they put up a good fight and with a bit more luck could have gotten the win. The ball however bounced in Anda's way as it has all season and they won 70-64.
Raanana Hertzeliya 64 – Anda Ramat Hasharon 70
Full stats
A six point win is a pretty big one for Ramat Hasharon, considering that six is what you get when you add up the winning margins Ramat Hasharon had in all four games this year against the top teams. Being their 4th game in eight days, Ramat Hasharon knew it was going to be a battle and Raanana Hertzeliya showed that they are a stubborn bunch, but also a team that's miles away from peaking. This was Raanana Hertzeliya's 3rd loss in a row and first home loss, but there's no need to hit the panic button.
Deanna Nolan wasn't even aware that her team became the first to win at Raanana. "I don't keep stats like that, we knew that we could come in here and win. There has been a lot of talk about how we're not ready, a day before the break and all but we wanted to prove everybody wrong. We are the #1 team" she said, and we'll get back to her shortly.
Those who did not see the game don't need more than one quick look at K.B Sharp's stat line, Raanana Hertzeliya's point guard and the league's assist leader through 10 rounds, to realize which team won. After averaging 1.6 turnovers per game through the first 5 games of the season, Sharp is now averaging 5 per game through the last 5 games. Tonight, unlike the two previous losses, she couldn't find the rim either and if you ask her, it has nothing to do with the pulled muscle in her leg. "K.B's a good player, but players are not machines. They have ups and downs. If she didn't have downs, she'd be Deanna Nolan" said Tal Natan.
Cheryl Ford was the MVP of the game with 19 points and 16 rebounds, Marianna Raguz had two huge buckets down the stretch to lock up the win but the story of the game was Nolan. We've seen it in games before and today was another display of just how easily Nolan can score when she wants to, there is nobody that can stop her besides herself. Nolan is light years ahead of her Israeli defenders in terms of athletic ability yet she didn't do much driving, and only posted up the smaller defender and shot over here with ease once. "It's not up to us, it's up to her" said Orna Ostfeld after the game. "She is too disciplined, we're talking about a player that can score at will. She's used to playing on big teams, not to being the only star. In Detroit, unfortunately for us, they build around Swin Cash. She has patterns that she needs to change. We give her the license to take shots whenever she wants, believe me that by April it's gonna happen. It has to, there's just no stopping her."
Nolan listened as I went on about how she could put a stop to any momentum the other team is trying to build, like Raanana did tonight late in the 4th, and how her team's life could be much easier, and replied "yeah, I've heard that before but at the same time you gotta run the offense. When we get out of our offense and we're scrambling, you see us running like chickens with their heads cut off." I gave it one more shot, and Tweety continued to explain. "It's just a mater of not forcing, just picking and choosing your shots of course. I try not to force, you know, that's not me. I don't like to just throw up shots, I like to take good shots, just exploits the opportunities that I have."
Both teams were shooting the lights out in the first quarter, and Raanana Hertzeliya made six of their first seven 3-point shots. Hila Izhar, who started the game, hit two treys as did Tatyana Troina. Shameka Christon and K.B Sharp had one each. Anda just kept finding Ford inside and she had 9 points in the quarter. Raanana Hertzeliya led just 20-17 after the 6th field goal from down town dropped in. Anda ended the quarter with a 9-0 run and led 26-20.
Raanana Hertzeliya shot just 1 for 7 from inside the 3pt arc in the 1st quarter and fell in love with the threes, which might have cost them the game eventually. They finished with 6 for 20 from beyond the arc. "I think we got a little complacent, felt a little too comfortable and settled for outside shots" said K.B Sharp. "We need to be more aggressive, do the little things. Box out, help defense, communicate, make free throws, I don't think we wanted it bad enough." All the things that Sharp said were missing for her team were Ramat Hasharon's main weapon. "We did not play well, at all, but we're a better team" said Ostfeld. "Rebounds under the basket and defense wins games, we step that up near the end. We started out with a zone and it didn't work, so we adjusted and basically played with one post on the floor."
Ramat Hasharon looked stuck early in the 2nd quarter and Raanana Hertzeliya, after not drawing any fouls in the first nine minutes of the game, started getting to the line with Monique Coker leading the charge. Ornit Shwartz hit a three and Liron Cohen made a 3pt play to keep the lead on the visitors' side despite nine turnovers in the quarter, as Christon picked up her 3rd foul trying to contain ford inside. Ramat Hasharon led 39-35 at the break.
Ramat Hasharon pushed the lead to 46-39 three minutes into the 3rd, glanced up at the game clocked as if wishing it would hurry up. Tal Salz came off the bench and brought up the defensive intensity, Christon raced to six straight points and Ostfeld called for a timeout with the lead down to one with under five minutes to go in the 3rd. Raanana Hertzeliya kept working hard on defense as Coker was just all over the place, and then gave her team the lead at the other end. Nolan answered with a short jumper way up above the defense but Raanana Hertzeliya held on to a 52-50 lead after 3.
Raanana Hertzeliya's lead vanished very quickly in the 4th as Marianna Raguz made two free throws and Ford had a 3pt play. Liron Cohen stopped turning the ball over for a second and hit a key jumper, which Raguz followed with a huge 3 to make it 60-54. "We missed three momentum threes in the 4th that could have turned the game around. It was a winnable game today but the better team won" said Tal Natan. Raanana Hertzeliya wasn't ready to give up as Coker from the line and Christon with a free throw line jumper in Raguz' face cut it to 62-59 with 3 minutes to play. Raanana Hertzeliya needed a stop badly but Raguz hit a jumper to beat the 24 second shot clock and made it a two possession game with under 2 minutes to play, 64-59. This was just Raguz' 2nd game back after missing nearly a month and a half with an injury. Coker missed a tough shot, Ford made two from the line, Christon missed a good attempt from three and it was over.
wiadomo skąd info
statystyki
http://www.safsal.co.il/eboxscore.aspx?id=2978
Sharp, Christon & Troina after the game
http://www.safsal.co.il/earticle.aspx?id=4668
Tatianka cos kiepsko wygląda
