Northwest Tops BCC 52-39 with Dynamic Defense
Senior guard Amber Miller played stingy defense all night and held the Barons Andrea Johnson in check for most of the game...
Photo By: Suwan Orht / GamedayMD.com | VIEW GALLERY
Written by: Kelechi Ukpabi
GERMANTOWN, MD - Northwest High School- The Lady Jaguars of Northwest High put together a monumental defensive effort against the Barons of Bethesda-Chevy Chase to improve to 7-6 overall with a 5-2 divisional record. The Jaguars controlled the tempo for the whole 32 minutes of game with stingy defense and a tight 2-3 zone defense to top the BCC 52-39. Northwest head coach Robert Smith was pleased with the intensity of his ladies against a very dangerous BCC team.
"In practice, we really stressed defense against BCC...they have a bunch of good players over there and we knew we had to shut them down" Coach Smith added.
Northwest came out in the 1st quarter with an aggressive 2-3 zone on defense. BCC had problems penetrating the zone, and was forced to try to hit long jumpers from the outset.
The story of the 1st quarter and much of the game was the Jaguars' ability to grab offensive rebounds. Northwest jumped out to an 11-4 lead in the first quarter with help from their 6'0'' sophomore Carla Batchelor. One two occasions in the 1st quarter Batchelor, the teams leading scorer and rebounder, scored on second chance points.
The Jaguars did a beautiful job boxing out and being physical to win the battle on the board.
Katelyn Porter of Northwest scored 5 points in the first quarter due to her outside shooting and by getting to the charity stripe. Porter, a junior, finished with a game high 17 pts and showed her skills from inside and outside all game.
The Barons did finish the 1s quarter strong with help from standout senior Bria White and quick point guard Andrea Johnson. The 1st quarter wrapped up with a score of 16-10 with Northwest in the lead.
The Lady Jaguars opened up the 2nd quarter with their hard line 2-3 defense which helped them to begin the period on an 8-0 run. BCC continued to have trouble getting inside the Northwest interior.
Amber Mitchell, the Jaguars' 5'3'' senior leader, executed near perfect ball pressure on Andrea Johnson of BCC. Mitchell, the team's assist leader coming into tonight's game, harassed Johnson and other BCC ball handlers and defended the perimeter with vigor.
The Jaguars defense allowed BCC to a lowly 6 points in the 2nd quarter. Bria White scored all 6 points for BCC in the period cashing in on two three-pointers. White, who has committed to Longwood University in Virginia, was one of the few bright spots for BCC and finished with 10 points.
