Junior, North set for MCT hoops
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
As productive as Marilyn Allen has been this season for the West Windsor-Plainsboro High North girls basketball team, there is one aspect of her game head coach Bob Boyce would like to see improve.
”I actually need her to be more of a scorer,” said Boyce, whose team improved to 12-4 with a 78-54 win over Ewing on Tuesday night. “She’s the fastest player we have. She runs track and she has that burst of speed. She is very athletic and moves on the court very well. Sometimes she scores well, but other times she doesn’t even look to score. She rebounds well and passes the ball well.”
Allen scored five points and left the scoring to others in the win over Ewing. The Knights finished with four players in double figures, led by Jacquie Klotz with 26 points. Kerry McNeilly had 14 points, Sarah McNeilly had 11 and Kayla Foster added 10 for the Knights.
”Each game I just look at individually and how I can apply my own effort every single game,” Allen said. “The main objective for me is to get somebody else open and give a good assist. If I have a chance to score I will try to do so.”
The Knights didn’t need Allen to score against Ewing, and her defense helped set the tone early as North raced out to a 27-8 lead at the end of the first quarter. It was yet another win for a young team that has been one of the surprises of the Colonial Valley Conference.
”So far we have been doing pretty well,” Allen said. “We are just trying to continue to play strong each and every game. At first we had a very young team. But I think we were able to work with that and learn different ways to come together and play together even though we are younger than the previous team.
”If we continue to work together and play to our strengths, I think we can do well at the (Mercer County) tournament.”
Allen played off the bench as a sophomore for the Knights last year, but came into the season expecting to play a bigger role.
”Over the summer we had a team camp and a league and we used that time to get together and work with each other to improve,” Allen said. “I think that helped to get us ready for this season.”
Boyce knows he has scorers in Klotz, Foster and the McNeilly sisters. And down the road he may even begin to get more scoring out of Allen as the young team continues to improve.
”She can give me 12 or 14 points a game just with her speed,” Boyce said. “We had Kerry back and Marilyn played some for us last year and we have Klotz. But everyone else was new to us.”
The Knights will open the MCT against Princeton on Monday.
”They gave us a great game last Friday,” Boyce said. “They had us the whole game and we came back to win in the fourth quarter. So we know that game will not be easy.”