Point guard helps improving WW-PS
By: Bob Nuse
Vondre Ossario had always fancied himself as more of a shooter than a passer.
Until this year.
"Last year and the year before that I was a shooting guard," said Ossario, a junior on the West Windsor-Plainsboro High South boys’ basketball team. "But this year (Jeff) Fisher got hurt and I had to step in and play point guard for him. It was a little tough at first, but I feel pretty comfortable now."
As Ossario has grown more comfortable in his role of point guard, the Pirates have played better and better. After opening the season with five straight losses, they’ve come on to win four of the last six games, including a 58-41 win at Princeton Day School on Saturday.
"Earlier in the season we tried a couple of different people at point guard," said WW-P South coach Jay Thompson, whose team also posted a 46-36 win over Hopewell Valley on Friday night. "After that I told Von, you’re our ‘1.’ Since then he’s done a lot of the ball handling for us. He’s only averaging a turnover or two a game and he didn’t have any last night or today."
When he needs to, Ossario has shown that he can still score. He had a season-high 10 points in Friday’s win over Hopewell and is averaging just over four points a game this season.
"I used to get more shots," Ossario said. "But now I mostly try to move the ball around and I feel comfortable with that. As long as we win, it doesn’t matter to me what I do."
Changing positions is nothing new for Ossario. When he was younger, he was actually one of the bigger players on the court.
"When I was younger I used to play power forward," Ossario said. "Then I was a shooting guard and now I’m playing point guard. Sometimes I think I should score more, but we have other guys on this team that can score."
And since Ossario has moved permanently into the point guard role, the Pirates have been more successful.
"We were having problems against pressure defense against Hightstown and we gave up an 11-point lead and lost the game," said Thompson, whose team will play at Voorhees on Wednesday night. "We’ve been much better since then and Von has been a big key to that. He’s done a nice job and he’s gotten more comfortable with the position."
The two wins over the weekend helped the Pirates improve to 4-7 overall after their 0-5 start.
"We know that this year there is no one team that is dominant in the league," Ossario said. "We feel like can be close against any team. We showed that against Hamilton (a 49-47 win)."
Grant MacQueen led the Pirates with 14 points in the win over PDS on Saturday. Uche Ndubizu added 10 points for South, which saw all 10 of its players score in the win. A night earlier, Andy Gill’s 13 points led the Pirates in their win over Hopewell. Ndubizu had 12 points and Ossario added 10.
"We’re playing better now," Thompson said. "We have a pretty balanced team and everyone is able to contribute. And in each of our wins, different guys have stepped up and done the job."
And one of them is Ossario, who has adapted quite nicely to his role as the Pirates’ point guard.

