Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Girls House Hoops Playoff Round One Roundup


By Kat McKay

It’s been ages since I’ve seen a basketball or written a ranking. Thanks to Nemo and February break, House play has been suspended for a while. This is late, but here are the official, YMCA-sanctioned end-of-season standings:
1.      Hoosiers, 7-1
2.      Huskies, 7-1
3.      Blue Devils, 5-3
4.      Sun Devils, 5-3
5.      Tarheels, 4-4
6.      Bears, 3-5
7.      Cavaliers. 1-7
8.      Wildcats, 1-7

House playoffs run a double elimination scheme. The first place team plays the eighth ranked, and then inwards from there, with teams who lose entering the losers bracket (each game there is sudden death) and teams who win remaining in the winners bracket. Last night, Monday, February 25, was the first round. There were no upsets. (Except for me. I was upset. But more on that later.)

Instead of doing a regular ranking, I’m going to do a game analysis for each match. There were only four, and they all went as I would have predicted.

Hoosiers v Wildcats: The Hoosiers are the best team in this league. It isn’t even a question. Congratulations for the millionth time to Kristy Gilbert and Riley Sousa, whose team scores more than everyone else combined (almost.). Their performance, while exceptional, was not really unorthodox. What’s more surprising is that the Wildcats ended their season on such a poor note, and ranked beneath the Cavaliers. I haven’t seen this team personally since week one back in December, so I don’t remember much about what their playing style is like—all I have are their results, which are somber. They scored a fair number of points against a highly successful defense, so they could possibly do all right and survive another round depending on whom they play and how much energy they can bring.
RESULT: Hoosiers W, 57-35

Huskies v Cavaliers: First of all, can I just mention that my team did not come in last overall (!!). Okay. This game was sort of slow, which was disappointing considering what is at stake.  The Huskies are very tall—Emma Hamilton and ALexa Sheldon don’t let anyone else get rebounds, because nobody else can reach the ball—and that works to their advantage. It was a slow scoring night all around, but overall not too one-sided.
Result: Huskies W, 24-15

Blue Devils v Bears: The Bears laid down this one. The Blue Devils are this year’s comeback team. Their third place finish in the regular season is indicative of how much they have improved since adding Caylee Waters to the roster. I still think they are underdogs, though, compared to the winners of the previous two games, so it will be fun to see how they fare against better teams than the tired-seeming Bears.
RESULT: Blue Devils W, 30-18

Sun Devils v Tarheels: On paper, this is supposed to be the closest game of the league— both middle-ranked teams with potential, the Sun Devils and Tarheels each had a legitimate chance to keep themselves in the winners bracket. But because this initial round of playoffs was very typical, the Sun Devils came away with the win. It makes me nervous that the Tarheels are in the losers bracket, because I think (for now) they can dominate it. On the other hand, the Sun Devils will probably find serious competition in the winners bracket. A lot is riding on that upcoming game for them—they can show everyone they were meant to be in the top 3, which they just barely were edged out of by their Blue relatives.
RESULT: Sun Devils W, 23-13

That’s all for the first round. The YMCA is speeding up the whole event, so the second round is tonight (winners games I think) and tomorrow night (losers games, such as my own). Until then DHS--!

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