Lady Wildcats hit their stride on the defensive end with wins

LEE – This past week, Head Coach Gary Wellington has preached defensive activity to his Wildcats as they improved to 14-5 overall with wins over Pittsfield, 38-21, and Monument, 57-25.

“We are picking up speed, which is good,” said star forward Stephanie Young. “We need to work hard if we want to get to Western Mass. finals, which is what we want to do.”

Against Pittsfield, Young dominated with 21 points, 17 rebounds and five steals to go with her five blocks. However, Lee’s collective defensive effort against the Generals in the fourth quarter allowed the Wildcats to outscore their foe, 14-0.

“Last game we had 30 tips [hands on the ball in the defensive end] – that shows me that nobody’s resting,” Wellington said. “That’s how we will gauge on how well we are playing defense.”

By all indications, with Young back in the lineup, Lee’s defensive prowess will only improve as the team hopes to avenge last year’s Western Mass semi-final loss to Lenox.

Young, who had been battling a shoulder injury as well as some personal issues over the last two weeks, returned, discarding her shoulder brace in warm-ups and helping her team play one of its best all around games of the season against the Generals.

“We came back with a little more emotion with [Young] back in the lineup,” Wellington said. “We’ve been looking for the other kids to pick up [in her absence] – and I told [Young] sitting there, I think we will be better for it.”

Two players who have really stepped up in the last two weeks have been Moriah McKenna and reserve Alyssa Kelly – who has been seeing more and more minutes off the bench.

“Kelly and McKenna – with her rebounding under the boards,” Wellington said. “Coming off the bench we are looking for [Kelly] to be a little more aggressive, because if we can’t match up with people in the paint – Eileen [Dooley] needs help.”

Against Pittsfield, Kelly was active, getting her hands on the ball and taking charge calls to help force the Generals’ Courtney McLaughlin (five points) and Dominique Satrape (six points) into foul trouble.

“When you take their shooter out, it got us to pick up a little bit – getting McLaughlin sitting on the bench is big, and we’ve been able to do that every game we’ve played them,” Wellington said.

Against Monument, Dooley lead the way with 25 points while Young had 13, as the Wildcats had another strong second half defensively, holding the Spartans to only seven points in the final two frames.

“Everyone says in the paper that they base their season on beating Lee, and right now, we have set the bar and we need to try and pick up,” Wellington said.

Posted by Tim Davis on February 21, 2013. 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