Knights basketball puts together full effort
By: Bob Nuse
So far this season, Brett Charleston has seen glimpses of how good his West Windsor-Plainsboro High North girls’ basketball team can look.
On Tuesday night, he was hoping for a longer look.
Charleston got just what he was hoping for as the Knights jumped out to a 17-1 lead on their way to a 54-33 win over WW-P South in front of a crowd of over 1,000.
"The last couple of games we’ve started slow and we’ve emphasized trying to get off to a better start," said Charleston, whose team led, 30-4, before the Pirates started to cut into the deficit. "We’ll start slow then play well in the second and third quarters. We felt like tonight we had to come out and play a strong four quarters."
The Knights did just that, using their press to force the Pirates into numerous turnovers.
"Coming into the game we knew this was a really big game and we wanted to be focused and intense from the beginning," said North’s Samantha Yang, who finished with nine points. "I think in this game everything just came together and clicked. We worked really hard on our press and everybody was able to get to their spots and it paid off for us tonight.
"It gives us a good boost of confidence. But having South as our biggest rival and playing in front of such a big crowd, that also helps get us motivated."
By halftime, the outcome was no longer in doubt. South got as close as 17 points in the fourth quarter, but never any closer. For North, the win was its fourth in a row and all the more special because it came against South. It was the second straight win for the Knights in the series.
"We play with a lot of these girls in summer league or AAU," Yang said. "So it’s fun to play against them and just go after it. It’s always nice having a big crowd cheering you on and playing for classmates and people in the community. This is the game that everybody comes to see."
Flynn Eisenman led the Knights with 14 points, while Regina Potter chipped in with 11 for a balanced offense that has become a North trademark.
"Everybody plays their part and contributes," Yang said. "We’re all unselfish, which helps bring us all together. We have a feel now for how everyone plays and we’re starting to build that chemistry. Going into (tonight’s game against Notre Dame) we’re pretty confident. We can see how much progress we’ve made."
More than anything else, Charleston hopes the team has developed the consistency he’s been looking for since the start of the season.
"We’ll go through spurts where we’re not able to score," said the Knights’ coach, whose team improved to 6-4 with the win. "We’ve been trying to preach consistency. We need to be a more consistent team over the whole four quarters of the game. We did that tonight. I don’t necessarily measure our success over whether we win or lose, but how we play. Today we played a very good first quarter, which is something we really wanted to do.
"I thought the first quarter showed how we can play every game. We tell them that the great teams are consistent and do that all the time. Right now we’re a good team and if we can be consistent, we can be even better."
For South coach Byron Conover, the first quarter was anything but an indication of how he feels his team can play.
"The rest of the game we were right there, but that first quarter was tough," said Conover, whose team fell to 1-8. "We just made too many mental mistakes. It’s disappointing coming after the game we played against Trenton. For three quarters, we were right there with them and I was hoping that would carry over to this game."
The Pirates were led by 10 points from Kelly Kasper, who is coming back from an injury and was playing in just her third game. Conover has a roster filled with varsity newcomers and hopes over time, experience pays off and the results begin to change.
"The chemistry is starting to come together and roles are more stabilized," Conover said. "We just have to get more experience. We don’t have a whole lot of experience and Kelly is just now coming back. I think as we get more experience, we’ll be better."

