Young reaches 1,000 points as Wildcats cruise in opener

LEE – This season is what the Lee girls’ basketball team is calling a redemption year.

After dropping to Lenox in the Western Massachusetts semi-finals, six seniors return to form a potent offensive bunch in hopes of raising championship banner no. 8.

“This is a redemption season – this is our year and we are trying to move on from the past,” said Lee’s leading scorer Stephanie Young.

Young notched 21 points and seven rebounds to go along with eight steals and two blocks in the Wildcats’ opening night 55-28 win over Mt. Anthony (Bennington, Vt.) on Monday night.

With the win, Young notched the prestigious 1,000-point mark with a three-point play in the game’s opening minute, when the forward stole the ball on the defensive end and went coast-to-coast for the and-one lay-up.

“I went for the steal, and I was going to the hoop right away,” Young said after the game.

The Wildcats opened the game with an 11-0 run, thanks to a relentless pressure defense that forced seven turnovers in the first quarter and helped Lee build a 18-2 lead after one.

“We came out and played the way we wanted,” said Lee Head Coach Gary Wellington. “There are a couple of things to work on like our rotations, but overall I am happy.”

Young who had six of her eight steals in the first quarter, continued her pressure on both ends as she had 13 points by halftime, boosting her team’s lead to 30-9.

At the point guard position, the Wildcats saw some great production from both Eileen Dooley (14 points) and backup Nikki Laudon (14 points), as both were able to create offense by knocking down outside shots and getting inside the lane for some easy baskets.

“If [Laudon] can play like that the whole year, it’s really going to be an asset – she’s going to be a starter next year and right now she is starting to build that confidence playing next to [Dooley],” Wellington said.

Defensively, the Wildcats will have to maintain 32 minutes of pressure in order to make up for their lack of height as bigger teams like Lenox will present match-up problems against the smaller Wildcats.

“We have to rebound by committee – we are not a big team, I need more bodies then they do on the boards,” Wellington said. “We were all right in the first half with our press – we were stealing the ball and getting our hands on the ball.”

That ball pressure is what will carry the Wildcats on the season, if they indeed tend to get back to the promise land. The other factor will be Young and her ability to dominate a game from both ends of the court.

“She has the skills to do whatever she wants to do,” Wellington said of Young. “She worked so hard, and she’s worked hard her entire life to get to this point – she came in as a freshman and has done the job all four years.”

Lee managed to slow down a bit in the second half as Mt. Anthony utilized their size to score 19 of their 28 points in the last 16 minutes, giving Wellington plenty to work on in the coming weeks.

“The fresh legs was the key – once our legs got tired we started using a little more of the hands – grabbing and not moving our legs on defense,” Wellington said. “That’s my fault for not having them in better condition.”

Posted by Tim Davis on December 13, 2012. Filed under High School Sports,Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry