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St. John’s girls face Austin schools in SPC openers
By MIKE TENNEY
Like everyone, Pat Krieger has made it through the last two weeks of holidays.
But it may be this weekend that the St. John’s girls head basketball coach has been anticipating the most.
The young Mavs, led lately by freshman post Kris Slaughter, begin Southwest Preparatory Conference South Zone play Friday night with visions of reaching the season-ending Division I tournament dancing in their heads.
“I think we’re excited about the start of the SPC,” said Krieger. “It’s going to be a tough first weekend with the Austin schools. They’re always very competitive. But I think we’re looking forward to it.”
The Mavs entertain St. Stephens at 5 p.m. Friday and come right back at 11 a.m. Saturday morning against St. Andrew’s to get the conference schedule tipped-off. Krieger said in the SPC with teams so far away, no one does much scouting.
“I don’t really know anything about either of them,” said Krieger. “It’s interesting because we always only really worry about ourselves, but from an offensive standpoint, as a coach, I always like to know what the other team likes to do. So I’ll try and find out something about them this week, but it shouldn’t take me very long to figure out who their best player is. Hopefully, then we can figure out the best way to stop her.”
She said her team is going after two wins.
“I would be thrilled, if we can find a way to go 2-0,” said Krieger. “I could live with a split. I’ll be extremely disappointed, if we go 0-2. But I think we are improving and now we have an opportunity to go out and see how we can do in conference. I do know this — we’ll be playing two competitive teams so we’ll have to be ready to play two good games.”
Despite the record, Krieger said her team, which has three freshmen and three sophomores, is going forward.
“I think we’re improving every day,” she said. “We still are a young team, and we make a lot of mistakes that I attribute to youth, but I feel like we are more competitive every game we play. I think we have made a tremendous amount of improvement since the year began, and I think our players will continue to improve.”
The Mavs wrapped up the 2008 part of the schedule with four games in the Second Baptist tournament last week, going 1-3 overall. They lost to Second Baptist for the third time this year as well as falling to HCYA South and Episcopal, 44-40, in the third-place game. Their only win was a 53-28 victory over Duchesne Academy.
Slaughter, who had 43 points and more than 30 rebounds in the four SBC games, was named to the all-tournament team. Sophomores Alex Beckham and Jessica Carroll were also big scorers with both reaching double figures in two games.
Besides that trio, senior Shanice Beasley was also credited off the bench.
“Shanice has given us good minutes off the bench,” said Krieger. “Right now, we’ve got young players who are very good basketball players, and we’ve got some older players who are just good athletes. But they’re not the basketball players the younger players are, and we’re still working to put everything together. I really believe we are getting there.”
In the meantime, Second Baptist, has collected more than 20 wins and claimed its Eagle Holiday Classic.“They’re a good team,” said Krieger. “We’ve cut down the margin (of defeat) every time we‘ve played them, but we still lost to them all three times. So we don’t need to play them anymore. And hopefully, playing them has helped us get ready for the SPC.”
Krieger knows the seven SPC games over the next four weeks will determine their postseason fate. Krieger said she’s thinks her girls could be right in the mix, because she doesn’t see a heavy favorite.
“I think the SPC South is going to be very competitive, because it always is,” she said. “Anything can happen in any game.”
But it may be this weekend that the St. John’s girls head basketball coach has been anticipating the most.
The young Mavs, led lately by freshman post Kris Slaughter, begin Southwest Preparatory Conference South Zone play Friday night with visions of reaching the season-ending Division I tournament dancing in their heads.
“I think we’re excited about the start of the SPC,” said Krieger. “It’s going to be a tough first weekend with the Austin schools. They’re always very competitive. But I think we’re looking forward to it.”
The Mavs entertain St. Stephens at 5 p.m. Friday and come right back at 11 a.m. Saturday morning against St. Andrew’s to get the conference schedule tipped-off. Krieger said in the SPC with teams so far away, no one does much scouting.
“I don’t really know anything about either of them,” said Krieger. “It’s interesting because we always only really worry about ourselves, but from an offensive standpoint, as a coach, I always like to know what the other team likes to do. So I’ll try and find out something about them this week, but it shouldn’t take me very long to figure out who their best player is. Hopefully, then we can figure out the best way to stop her.”
She said her team is going after two wins.
“I would be thrilled, if we can find a way to go 2-0,” said Krieger. “I could live with a split. I’ll be extremely disappointed, if we go 0-2. But I think we are improving and now we have an opportunity to go out and see how we can do in conference. I do know this — we’ll be playing two competitive teams so we’ll have to be ready to play two good games.”
Despite the record, Krieger said her team, which has three freshmen and three sophomores, is going forward.
“I think we’re improving every day,” she said. “We still are a young team, and we make a lot of mistakes that I attribute to youth, but I feel like we are more competitive every game we play. I think we have made a tremendous amount of improvement since the year began, and I think our players will continue to improve.”
The Mavs wrapped up the 2008 part of the schedule with four games in the Second Baptist tournament last week, going 1-3 overall. They lost to Second Baptist for the third time this year as well as falling to HCYA South and Episcopal, 44-40, in the third-place game. Their only win was a 53-28 victory over Duchesne Academy.
Slaughter, who had 43 points and more than 30 rebounds in the four SBC games, was named to the all-tournament team. Sophomores Alex Beckham and Jessica Carroll were also big scorers with both reaching double figures in two games.
Besides that trio, senior Shanice Beasley was also credited off the bench.
“Shanice has given us good minutes off the bench,” said Krieger. “Right now, we’ve got young players who are very good basketball players, and we’ve got some older players who are just good athletes. But they’re not the basketball players the younger players are, and we’re still working to put everything together. I really believe we are getting there.”
In the meantime, Second Baptist, has collected more than 20 wins and claimed its Eagle Holiday Classic.“They’re a good team,” said Krieger. “We’ve cut down the margin (of defeat) every time we‘ve played them, but we still lost to them all three times. So we don’t need to play them anymore. And hopefully, playing them has helped us get ready for the SPC.”
Krieger knows the seven SPC games over the next four weeks will determine their postseason fate. Krieger said she’s thinks her girls could be right in the mix, because she doesn’t see a heavy favorite.
“I think the SPC South is going to be very competitive, because it always is,” she said. “Anything can happen in any game.”
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