Edwards not hesitating to score for WW-PS
By: Justin Feil
Natasha Edwards saw her first significant varsity action last season with the West Windsor-Plainsboro High South girls’ basketball team. And though she enjoyed a solid junior season, there were times when Edwards looked somewhat hesitant when asked to score at for the Pirates.
Those days seem long gone.
As a senior, Edwards is taking a larger role as a co-captain along with twin sister Rashanna Edwards to be more of an offensive leader for the Pirates.
"I was looking for our team to do well this year," she said. "For me personally, I wanted to score more. This year, my average is going up. I want to be more of a threat offensively."
In a two-game stretch, Steinert and Hopewell Valley got heavy doses of the threatening player into which Natasha Edwards has developed. Against the Spartans last Tuesday, the versatile guard tied Kelly Kasper for team-high scoring honors with eight points in a defensive struggle. WW-P South came out on top, 40-37, in overtime to hand Steinert just its third loss of the season.
Friday, Edwards had her way against Hopewell with a season-high 22 points in the Pirates’ 58-56 win over the Bulldogs, who never seemed to find Edwards.
"They covered me," said Edwards, who finished just two points off her career high scored against Hightstown last season. "It just didn’t seem like it. They played man and three-two (zone)."
The two wins helped WW-PS improve to 7-4, and in a supposed down year, allowed them to move within one game of qualifying for the state tournament, the ultimate goal for Edwards and the Pirates.
Natasha Edwards is the Princeton Packet Athlete of the Week.
"They were two of her best games all year," said WW-PS head coach Beth Fitzpatrick, whose squad travels to West Windsor-Plainsboro North 1 p.m. Saturday. "She played awesome in that Hopewell game. She came up huge for us.
"She was being more offensive. She was just catching the ball and was looking to be offensive, either to shoot or drive to the basket. She had two three-pointers, and what she did so well was flash into the lane and she scored the majority of her shots off that turnaround jumper in the middle of the lane."
It may be the most dangerous spot on the court to allow Edwards to touch the ball. With each game, she becomes more comfortable as that middleman in the Pirate offense.
"I like that spot," Edwards said. "I can just shoot or go right to the basket. That spot’s good for me."
Just as Edwards has been good for WW-PS. With her 22-point explosion, Edwards increased her team scoring average to 10 points per game, behind only her sister on the team.
"I just try to help my team out any way I can," Edwards said. "Against Hopewell, I had the hot hand. I was going to the basket and scoring."
"She’s a senior now," Fitzpatrick said. "She’s not letting us lose."
All the while, Edwards has continued to play the sort of defense that WW-PS has come to be known for. The combination of both from Edwards gave the Pirates just the edge for the back-to-back wins.
"I think they were big wins," Edwards said. "Hopewell, they played us really tough the whole game. I didn’t expect them to play as tough as they did. Against Steinert, that was a big win for us. They only had two losses.
"Our defense was really, really key. We stopped their guards from shooting threes and going to the basket. And inside our big girls defended theirs really well."
The result is the Pirates can seal a state tournament berth with a win over WW-P North Saturday. It’s a game that Edwards is looking forward to because it will be her last meeting with the Knights.
"I’m still friends with a couple people on their team," she said. "It’s all one district. It’s kind of for bragging rights. It’s a big game for us and the community too."
Edwards has developed into the sort of player that Fitzpatrick had hoped she would when she got her first varsity starts last year.
"Last year, we would say, ‘You have to take more shots,’ and shewould just say that she knew," Fitzpatrick said. "She’s more confident now. She was totally looking to take the team on her shoulders against Hopewell. She was open and she was taking the shots. That’s what we want her to do.
"She was penciled in to do this. If she doesn’t, we’re not winning some of these games."
But because Edwards has been able to live up to preseason expectations, the Pirates are feeling better coming into the final portion of the season. WW-PS is ahead of most predictions.
"I’m not surprised at all," Edwards said. "I feel we can beat any team in the CVC. The teams we’ve beaten, I expect to beat. And the teams we haven’t, I expect to beat the next time around."
Spoken like the more confident Edwards that is emerging more often now. And after a season high against Hopewell, she couldn’t be any more positive.
"My confidence went up huge," she said. "From now on, I think I could score 20 points any night. My confidence went up after that game."
It’s something that the Pirates are happy to hear. They’ll be counting on Edwards as she enters the home stretch of her senior season, and that’s just fine with the WW-PS co-captain.
"I have more of a leadership role on the team than I did as a junior or sophomore," she said. "I kind of feel I have to do more on the court than I did last year. When crunch time comes, I have to step up my defense and offense."
Natasha Edwards didn’t hesitate to do either last week, and the result was two big wins for the West Windsor-Plainsboro South girls’ basketball team.

