HAMILTON >> An un-Merry Christmas tournament coupled with a group of players who have spent several seasons getting to know each other has resulted in a Happy New Year for the Steinert girls basketball team.
The Spartans have yet to fall in 2018, as their 51-12 win over Lawrence on Wednesday night made it four in a row since the calendar flipped.
Steinert’s three losses have been to teams with a combined record of 19-2. Two of them came against Bridgewater-Raritan (5-1) and Henderson (9-0) of West Chester, Pa., at Montgomery’s Cougar Holiday Classic.
“Those games showed us what we had to work on and what we needed to do better in order to get better,” said junior guard Natalie Mehl, who led all scorers with 13 points. “It was good competition. I think it really helped us. Even though they were tough teams, I think we worked very well.”
That hard work and challenging competition is paying off for Steinert (7-3), which is what coach Kristin Jacobs had in mind.
“We’re finally putting some things together,” Jacobs said. “We really loaded our schedule up in the beginning so we could go up there and play the type of competition that would get us ready for the county and state tournaments.”
Granted, winless Lawrence is a team the Spartans should handle easily. But there is a growing sense of optimism on a team that features seniors Tatiana Dorner and Erika Golik and juniors Mehl, Jayda Bing and Leila Collazo. It’s a nucleus that is now in it’s third year together, except for Bing, who joined the team last year after transferring from Monmouth last year.
“We’ve just been working really hard every single day at practice,” Mehl said. “I think we have great chemistry on and off the court and I think if we stick to what we’re good at, we can do a lot of good things.
“We all played on the same travel team in the summer. Our chemistry has gotten so much better and it’s grown over the past few years. We’re all friends off the court and I think it’s helping us grow on the court.”
Jacobs’ team was coming off a tough win over Nottingham in what is always a war, and the intensity was ratcheted down a notch against the Cardinals.
“We had a battle last night against Nottingham,” Jacobs said. “We were just making sure kids got touches on the ball. We were working to move the basketball offensively but still trying to play solid defense; do the little things and get everybody a little bit of time tonight.”
If there is one thing the Spartans need to improve on, it’s making easy transition lay-ups after coming up with steals. Steinert often takes three and four shots in close that don’t fall.
“That’s our slight Achilles heel,” Jacobs said. “We are progressively working on that. My feeling is, even though we get the steal and the shot doesn’t necessarily go in, it’s less possessions the other team has to score. Eventually it’s all gonna start falling. Sometimes our jump shots are in, sometimes they’re not. As long as we continue to play defense, we’ll be all right.”
LAWRENCE (12)
Hemingway 0-0-0, Cartwright 3-0-6, Howell 0-0-0, Ripberger 0-0-0, Schreiber 0-0-0, Rishindran 1-0-2, Audet 0-0-0, Lestician 2-0-4, Stokes 0-0-0.
Totals – 6-0-12.
STEINERT (51)
Bing 1-1-3, Collazo 2-0-6, Comfort 1-0-2, Diszler 2-2-6, Dorner 3-0-6, Golik 0-0-0, Haley 2-0-4, Huth 1-0-3, Jones 1-0-2, Mehl 5-0-13, Pappas 2-0-4, Wood 1-0-2.
Totals – 21-3-51..Lawrence (0-8) 2 0 2 8 – 12 Steinert (7-3) 13 10 13 15 – 51
3-point goals – Collazo 2, Huth, Mehl 3 (S).
Follow Rich Fisher on twitter @Fish4scores
