Wissahickon competes well, but falls short to Central Bucks East

On paper going into Saturday’s contest between CB East and Wissahickon it would have been suggested that the Patriots would have easily gotten past the Trojans. In fact even the 42-29 final score would suggest that as well.
In actuality Wissahickon hung pretty tough for the first half of the game and had the game tied 9-9 after the first quarter.
“We’ve got to do the little things, like for a quarter and a half we were doing the right things,” Wissahickon coach Rodney Cline said. “We were playing basketball. They understood what was coming and what to do. East made an adjustment by going into a zone and we didn’t adjust and do well with it.”
Unfortunately for the Trojans this season is a learning experience as they only roster two seniors as they figure out how to play with each other. In Saturday’s game, Wissahickon displayed many of the characteristics that make them a promising team but also ones that make them young and inexperienced.
“We’re finally starting to get healthy,” Cline said. “The girls understand the concepts of what we’re supposed to do. We’re getting better. We’re looking at certain things, certain people, putting people in the right positions.”
For starters it’s clear the Trojans are more developed on the defensive end as shown by its effective play throughout large parts of the game. Wissahickon even did a formidable job defending the paint, where it was giving up a lot of size to CB East.
There were also some holes in the Trojan defense as some lapses in communication led to good looks and open layups for the Patriots.
“The first 12-13 minutes the communication was there and then we got to a point where they start to get tired and they see the ball going through the basket the communication and their voices start to drop,” Cline said.
Offensively, Wissahickon is still getting all of its players comfortable with handling the ball. One player not afraid to handle the rock is Daria Earland. The senior led all scorers with 15 points; accounting for just over half of Wissahickon’s scoring.
“She’s just getting back,” Cline said of Earland. “This is only her third or fourth game back. She’s just getting that rust off right now. We want to put the ball in our playmakers hands. We want to keep giving her that confidence. She should be a 15-20 point scorer a game, that’s where she should be.”
Sometimes the status of a program is a work in progress and that’s not necessarily a bad thing as long as the team is progressing. The Trojans have a long haul a head but it seems that it’s headed in the right direction.