Game 79: Princeville @ Stark County (Girl's Basketball)

Game 79
Princeville @ Stark County (Girl's Basketball)
1/5/11

It's been nearly two years to the day that I broadcasted my first game online with IHSSN. That first game came on January 15th, 2008 in Wyoming. It was for a girl's basketball game between host Stark County and visiting (Biggsville) West Central.



Driving to Wyoming, I thought of that first broadcast, sort of an experiment. That experiement passed with flying colors. That West Central Heat team was very strong, and featured Miriam Rutzen. It's pretty ironic, that I interviewed Miriam just this morning. She is now a sophomore at Harvard, and has even cracked the starting lineup. As a freshman last year, she logged around 8 minutes/game, and is now playing around 20 minutes/game for the Ivy League school. That interview with Rutzen on the life at Harvard will be online next week.

Bumper Sticker of the Day
In my commute, I noticed a big truck with a large window cling in the back window. It read: "WHITETRASHWHEELIN.COM." One of my all-time favorites is, "Loud Pipes Save Lives."

Arrival
I pulled up to the school around 5:15, 45 minutes before the fresh/soph game tips off. This enabled me to get one of the finest parking spots of the season (read below on the funny exchange this leads to). After setting up, I had time to watch the fresh/soph game.

Stark County has a very talented underclass group, and I was really impresssed with a freshman guard, Ashley Phillips. She was quick, defended well, and has been one of the better ball handling guards I've seen in underclass girl's basketball. The Rebels sophomores improved to 10-0 with a lopsided win over Princeville.

Princeville Sophs Finish With 3 Players on Floor
Numbers are a problem at both levels for Princeville. I didn't notice how many girls were on the bench for the fresh/soph Princesses. There were only 8 listed on the roster. After one of the girls fouled out, coach Bill Dorrington looked at his bench, had no one to sub in, so he called out, "Just play box, two on top...two on bottom."

Fortunately, this was with only 1:30 to play in the game. In the final 0:10, a Princeville player was injured on a collision underneath the basket. She was taken out, and the Princesses finished with just 3 girls on the floor. On a few occasions, I've seen teams have to finish with 4 players on the floor....but 3 players is a first for me in watching basketball. I believe I saw back-to-back games last year where teams had just 4 girls on the floor (Galesburg vs. Chicago Hope girls and Monmouth-Roseville vs. Orion girls).

Low Numbers at Varsity, Too
With the varsity teams on the floor warming up, Princeville had just five girls shooting around. I looked over at the bench, and it was empty with the exception of a couple injured girls. In talking with coach Becky Gardner, she said there would be 8 girls available, the other three were being brought up from the (already short-staffed) fresh/soph squad.

By the Numbers
One of the girls for Princeville warming up was #45, but there wasn't one listed on the roster. Coach Gardner said that Lauren Dye forgot her jersey (#42), so she was #45 tonight.

Princeville's Young Roster
#10 Maggie Dwyer (So.)
#15 Alivia Stoller (Jr.)
#23 Rachel Long (Jr.)
#32 Whitney Streitmatter (Fr.)
#35 Kristy Kieser (So.)
#40 Mikayla Wieland (Fr.)
#44 Jessica Loos (Fr.)
#45 Lauren Dye (Sr.)

Game Time
The Princesses played tough in the first half, but Stark County pulled out a 17-9 edge after the first eight minutes. It was all Natalie Turner and Elizabeth Groter in that first quarter, scoring 16 of the 17 points.

By halftime, the Lady Rebels jumped out to a 38-16 lead, before cruising to a 71-29 win. Two Princeville players did foul out (Alivia Stoller and Lauren Dye), and Rachel Long had 4 fouls. The team picked up 12 fouls in the first half, putting the team in a tricky situation for the second half with their depth issues.

Natalie Turner finished with a game-high 22 points, while Elizabeth Groter added 16 points, and Kate Morrissey and Taylor Endress each added 10 points. Alivia Stoller led Princeville scored 12 points.

After Game Socializing
Growing up at a small school, the scene after a game was very reminiscent of the scene in Wyoming after this game. Parents, fans, and the community hang out in the gym for an extended period of time visiting. It's something that I really didn't notice until I started broadcasting Macomb Bombers games. My broadcast partner was football coach Kelly Sears, and after every home game, he would wonder why people stayed around so long after the game. He would always say, "I just wanna get outta here!"

A bulk of my schedule now is large schools, Class 3A and Class 4A. At these games, the gym is completely empty three minutes after the final horn sounds. After tonight's game, I wrapped up the broadcast with a short postgame show, packed up my equipment, and the gym was still full of people talking.

An Unlikely Passenger
Remember I parked really close to the front doors? When I packed my equipment away, I started up the car. While warming up, I punched in my Garmin directions. I noticed an older lady walking toward my vehicle. She opened up the back door, and started to get in. I turned around and said, "Hi!" She responded, "Oh goodness, this is the wrong vehicle, I thought (whoever she was riding with) was being nice and pulled up to pick me up." I mentioned she probably doesn't want to go where I'm going. She asked where, and I said Annawan (going to my parents house to exchange vehicles, as mine had been in the shop). She said she had a granddaughter that lived in Annawan. We had about a 5 minute conversation talking about girl's basketball, and the highly anticipated battle coming up between Annawan and Stark County. Quite an entertaining encounter!

Game 79 Miles: 122