Simi, South defense does it again

Pirate girls’ basketball wins 11th straight

By: Justin Feil
   The West Windsor-Plainsboro South girls’ basketball team didn’t need to play a game to know it was defensive-minded.
   It only needed a vote.
   When the Pirates voted Allison Simi a co-captain along with Becky Peters, it showed that they understood that their defense is at least as important as their offense is.
   "I don’t really consider myself a strong offensive player yet," said Simi, who like Peters is a junior. "It’s something I’m working on. I have to base myself off defense. If I don’t have strong offense, I can still do my part for the team. I consider myself strong defensively, while Becky is really good on offense. I can let her do her thing and just play defense."
   Peters has lit up the Colonial Valley Conference at nearly 20 points per game, and the Pirates have been able to lean on a defense led by Simi to wear down opponents, particularly in the second half. WW-P South did it again in a 45-27 win over Notre Dame on Tuesday.
   "Notre Dame played a diamond-and-one against Becky," said Pirates head coach Lisa Guarneri after her team improved to 14-2. "It’s hard to score off that. But what started to happen, we got steals and steals and steals, and they can’t set up then. That’s creating our offense."
   It’s no accident that the Pirates are so good defensively that often times it is the best means for getting them baskets offensively. Tuesday, Peters led the Pirates with 13 points, while Amanda Terebey added nine points and Tory Sharpless had eight.
   When it really needed a basket, WW-P South started it with a defensive stop to earn a scoring opportunity.
   "At practice every day we do a shell drill and work on our defense," Simi said. "We really are a defensive team. We have to have a strong defense because we don’t have a lot of strong offensive players. We have to get steals and rebounds. That’s how we create our offense, by working hard on defense.
   "I don’t think we have a lot of tall kids. There are always people taller than us. They’re going to shoot over us sometimes. They’re going to get rebounds because they’re taller than us sometimes. As long as we keep working hard and keep hustling, we’re going to be OK."
   Simi has brought that philosophy to the Pirates after playing on the junior varsity last year. It was last year’s experience that helped her, both in preparing her to play and be a team leader for the Pirate varsity.
   "I got a lot of minutes on JV," she said. "That helped. It really helps you become a leader on the court and know the game, even if it’s not at highest level. Then I came to tryouts and worked really hard this year. Mr. (Eric) Daniels, our JV coach, stresses working hard. He says, even though you may not be the tallest player or the strongest, it doesn’t matter. As long as you work hard, you’ll get somewhere."
   Simi finds herself in a key role for the Pirates in her first year of varsity. Guarneri couldn’t be happier with the contributions she has gotten from Simi, who was named the program’s most improved player after last season.
   "She’s a junior captain," Guarneri said. "The other kids voted for her for captain. She has a strong personality and she’s a good leader. She’s brilliant too. I think she scored 2200 on the SATs. She aced the math part.
   "She’s a leader. Even in practice, she’s getting on kids to get them better. She’s always in the right spot defensively. She plays good help side defense. Our team is based on strong defense. She bought into it. She knows her role, I think. She’s there. She’s happy to be part of the team. She’s a solid player for us. She knows where she has to be and she’ll get on people when they’re not in the right spot."
   The Pirates haven’t had many things to correct in the early going, except that is the early going in games. WW-P South has had sluggish starts in CVC play, but is trying to rectify that problem as they look forward to upcoming tournament action. WW-P South even started the season slowly, at 3-2, before reeling off 11 straight wins.
   "We never look past anyone," Simi said. "But we play against teams that are 2-11 and it’s almost tied at half. We take it to them in the second half. We have close first halves all the time and we know we can’t let go.
   "A couple games, we’ve had good starts. Lawrenceville this past Saturday, we were up, 16-4, after the first quarter. Then by halftime, we were only winning by five. We always pick it up in second half. We know we have to pick it up and we can’t do that against the better teams. That’s what happened in the last (WW-P) North game. We got in such a deficit, we couldn’t come back."
   The Pirates want to ensure that history won’t repeat itself when they face another strong team. South plays 7 p.m. tonight at Hamilton looking for their 12th straight win and to continue the success that is getting to be a regular thing.
   "Last year, the team wasn’t that good," Simi said. "Then we were 1-2 and then 3-2. We started winning and we picked up this huge momentum. Now Coach tells us we’re the team to beat and other teams look to beat South. We’re so pumped up because we’re having such a good season. We know we can beat all these teams. Last year, it was ‘win one, lose one,’ and we were barely in states. Now we’re already in states. It’s exciting. We know we have a chance to be good. We have a chance to go far in states and in counties."
   To do so, the Pirates will need a stronger offense to match what is one of the best defenses around. Whatever happens offensively, it’s comforting to WW-P South to know its defense is there night in and night out. The Pirates didn’t need a game to know how crucial their defensive play would be. They acknowledged it early with their captain vote for defensive-minded Simi.
   "I felt honored," she said. "I took up the responsibility. They look to me as a hustler and a hard worker. It’s a good opportunity to fill the role. People see me a certain way. I have to do that every game.
   "I’ve always been a hustler. I started young. As I got into high school, defense was stressed more. I started to focus on it more because I was already good at it."
   Allison Simi is even better at it now, and it’s made the WW-P South girls’ basketball team better as well.