Defense will be first priority

GIRLS BASKETBALL

By: Tim Falls
   Lawrence High School girls basketball coach Greg Zenerovitz already has plans to work the defense.
   The Cardinal coach found his team lacking on the defensive end this season and wants his young players to pay special attention to their defense when training and playing in the off season.
   "We needed to stress more on defense," said Zenerovitz. "It was a lack of defense and a lack of team defense that hurt us."
   The Cardinals went 4-19 this season with several tough games where Lawrence just could not match their opponents.
   "When you average 39, 40 points a game you need to keep your opponents around that number," said Zenerovitz. "It seemed all season the other team was always around 50."
   A more disciplined defense could help Lawrence counter those points and gain more wins next season.
   At the start of this season, it looked like Lawrence would be in position to put up more positive results.
   Lawrence opened the season with an historic win over Notre Dame.
   While the victory was a significant achievement for the Lawrence program, the Cardinals tapered off afterwards and fell into a slump.
   "Obviously you have high hopes at the start as a coach for any sport," said Zenerovitz. "What we found this year was we just didn’t improve in certain areas I thought we’d improve in."
   Lawrence still sent mostly underclassmen out onto the court, but after fielding a young team the season before, the Cardinals had hoped for more progress.
   "I try not to compare from year to year," said Zenerovitz, "but we were more competitive than the year before even though the wins and losses were about the same."
   Still, defensive holes kept Lawrence from gaining more wins.
   "We didn’t show the improvement I had hoped for," said Zenerovitz. "I’ll take my responsibility for that."
   The Lawrence coach said he’ll try to impress upon his players the importance of defense.
   Zenerovitz also said he hopes his players will take advantage of an opportunity to play in the Trenton summer basketball league and work on their defense there.
   "Trenton’s Coach (Reggie) Murray invited our girls to come play in their program," said Zenerovitz. "Where else could the girls learn to play as well as playing against those talented girls."
   Despite the setbacks, Zenerovitz said he was happy to have all the younger girls out on the team.
   "I never felt like the girls didn’t want to play," said Zenerovitz. "If you have a senior-laden team it can be a challenge, especially at the end when you don’t have any state games. The girls wanted to play every game."
   Zenerovitz said he was proud his players didn’t quite and didn’t want to give up.
   The coach could see it in their last Mercer County Consolation game, a 50-42 loss to Nottingham.
   "They beat us by 36 points on our own court a month before," said Zenerovitz. "In the Mercer consolation game it was tied with two minutes left."
   The Cardinals concluded their season with a 50-42 loss to Roxbury last Friday.
   Sophomore Ashley Russo led Lawrence with 17 points, sophomore Laquisha Spencer had 12 points and sophomore Lauren Raymond scored six points in the loss.