16U Firecrackers remain unbeaten at TOC, semi-final on Friday

Hart’s defense key to Firecrackers victory for second consecutive game

There was a buzz courtside as the 16U Maine Firecrackers and the Lady Pumas, of Louisiana, went through warm ups for a quarter-final match-up at the Tournament of Champions in Suwanee, GA. Considered by most the best match up of the day, and by the number of coaches filling the seats along the baseline, including a UConn sighting, it was clear the college coaches agreed.

The 16U squad built and eight-point lead late in the second-half, and hit key free throws down the stretch to finish off the Lady Pumas, 38-32. With the win, 16U advances to the to finals of the 17U Pool A bracket where they will meet the Georgia Celtics, on Friday. The winner of that game will play for the tournament championship against the winner of Pool B, later in the day.

The game started with a quick basket by the Puma’s which was matched shortly thereafter by Mackenzie Holmes on the other end.  The teams exchanged baskets early on before the Lady Pumas went on the first run of the game, scoring nine unanswered points all on three-pointers from the perimeter to take a 13-5 lead. Then for the second game in a row the insertion of Alex Hart jacked up the defensive intensity of the Maine girls. 

While the shooting again was cold, turnover-after-turnover were created by Hart, Alaina Birkel and Brie Wajer due to the defensive pressure they applied. Too match this, when the Louisiana squad was able to get shots off, they were limited to one-and done-by the outstanding rebounding efforts of Emily Esposito, Danasia Fennie and Holmes.   

The offense began to pick up and was highlighted by a driving basket by Fennie, a beat-them-down-the-court lay in for Holmes, back-to-back jumpers by Esposito off of set plays and finally a nice baseline jumper by Katie Butler led to a half time score of 21-21

Neither team could get much happening offensively in the second half until the Firecracker’s trio of youngsters began to take over the game. First up was a beautiful feed from Anna DeWolfe to Faith Blethen, who finished with a nifty left-handed shot in the middle. Blethen was just getting warmed up. With the Firecrackers up two points with about six minutes to play, Blethen calmly sank consecutive three-pointers from well behind the arch to push the lead out to eight points.  With the Lady Pumas staying close, fellow sophomore-to-be Holmes answered back with six straight points, including a sweet left-handed spin move to the middle and finishing with a lay-up off another great feed from DeWolfe.

The 15U Firecrackers fell, 34-28, to 1onNone in quarter-final action. They will play the SC76ers at 11:15 AM on Friday in a consolation game.