|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 9:23 AM CST
Coles County rivalry to open girls' basketball season
BY SCOTT RICHEY, Staff Writer
Both the Charleston and Mattoon girls’ basketball teams get the majority of their non-conference play in early season tournaments before their respective conference play starts at the end of November and beginning of December.
The Lady Trojans play National Trail team Altamont before making a three-team run through the Little Illini Conference in the Robinson Tournament with an independent (Mt. Carmel) and an Apollo foe (Robinson) rounding out the tournament schedule.
The Lady Green Wave will get a feel for the Central State Eight and Mid-Illini conferences when Mattoon plays in the Chatham-Glenwood Turkey Tourney the next two weekends. Mattoon is scheduled to play games against Chatham-Glenwood, Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin, Dunlap, Pekin and Sangamo Conference power Rochester.
The big non-conference game, however, happens before the teams’ respective tournament play. The Coles County rivals start their seasons against each other today at Charleston’s Baker Gym following the junior varsity game scheduled to start at 6:15 p.m. The game is to be broadcast on WEIU FM-88.9.
“First game out of the gate is Mattoon?” Charleston coach Jeff Miller said. “How exciting to get the season under way is that? Whether we play Mattoon home or at their place, it’s always an intense game. The fans are into it. It’s just a great basketball atmosphere.”
Mattoon coach Josh Morgan had similar feelings.
“I know both (teams) get pumped for this game,” Morgan said. “The intensity is going to be there. This is a good game to kind of let us know things we’re going to need to improve on and get an idea of changes we need to make for the tournament.”
Miller said the high intensity type of game he expects against Mattoon would be good preparation for his team as well. That will hold especially true with the Robinson Tournament the next two weekends.
“It’s going to be a huge asset in preparing us in the since that the next two weeks we’ll play seven ball games,” Miller said. “We always look at the Thanksgiving tournament as a tune-up for the Apollo. We’ll get seven games under our belt before we start the Apollo, which is huge.”
Morgan said he expects the game to be fun yet highly competitive because of the inherent rivalry. Most importantly, though, he said his players are simply ready to get some game experience after playing against just each other in practice.
“The competitive juices will definitely be flowing,” Morgan said. “It’s time to get that game speed. They need to actually play in a game to see where we are and what we need to work on offensively and defensively.”
Defensively the Lady Wave will have to deal with what Morgan said he expects to be solid Charleston guard play from Haley Sparks and sisters Brittany and Megan O’Dell. Morgan characterized the Trojans’ guards as quick and strong, but he said his team could match up well on the perimeter.
“We are definitely very guard heavy this year,” Morgan said. “We may have to go with a smaller lineup or make some changes throughout the game if their quickness is causing some problems.”
Miller sees the same type of perimeter battle happening. He said the Lady Trojans match up well with Mattoon’s perimeter-oriented style and in terms of guard size. The same is true with what Miller called a hard-nosed style of play he expects from Mattoon.
“We’re a pretty scrappy ball club,” Miller said. “My girls aren’t afraid to get down on the floor. These girls are intense and, I think, are exciting to watch.”
Add your comments
Not already registered?
Then click Here.
Comment policy:
JG-TC.com encourages readers to engage in civil conversation with their neighbors. Comments that are submitted are not posted to the site immediately. They go into a queue to be moderated and may take several hours to be reviewed. Comments posted on Saturday may not be reviewed until Sunday afternoon.
In order to keep the page a set width, long lines (mostly long links) will be chopped. Try putting spaces in your links or consider using tinyurl.com to make a smaller link that you can include.
We will never edit or alter your comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct.
No comment may contain:
* Potentially libelous statements; such as accusing somebody of a crime, defamation of character, or statements that can harm somebody's reputation.
* Obscene, explicit, or racist language.
* Personal attacks, insults, threats, harassment or inciting violence.
* Commercial product promotions.
If you have any questions, please contact our moderator.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
