Saturday, June 25, 2011

Today at Kezar

Wally Mersereau travelled to San Francisco today and posted the following report of the South Bay vs Bay City game at Kezar.

Stanford players showed up for the first time at Kezar today to play on the South Bay team. Those present were Joslyn Tinkle, Amber Orrange, Jasmine Camp, Bonnie Samuelson, Taylor Greenfield and past player Markisha Coleman. Because of a shortage of players for opposing Bay City, Markisha played for that team. Erica Payne was a no-show with an injured ankle.

About 15 or so Stanford fans attended.

Bonnie Samuelson made about 80% of her pre-game three-pointers, but took very few shots during the game.

This was a typical sloppy, but enjoyable, Kezar game. Bay City took a healthy lead of 11-12 points in the first half, led by Brittany Spears (formerly Colorado), Jessica Kellogg (formerly San Jose State) and Amber White (Utah State). Markisha played very well, especially on drives to the basket.

Joslyn led a South Bay resurgence in the second half, allowing SB to take the lead for the first time with 10 minutes remaining. After that the lead went back and forth until SB finally wrapped it up in the last couple of minutes to win 85-81.

Not surprisingly, Joslyn was the best of the Stanford players with good blocks and rebounds and with a variety of scoring shots, mostly spin moves and hooks. Joslyn also made about three 3-pointers. Amber and Jasmine alternated at the point. They handled the ball well. Amber was aggressive with lots of drives to the basket and a nice pull-up jumper. She probably was the second high scorer from Stanford. Jasmine made a few baskets, including at least one three. Bonnie scored maybe three times from behind the line. Taylor did well on rebounds, but shot little.

Based on this first viewing I would rank the freshmen in this order: Amber, Bonnie, Jasmine, Taylor. None of the freshmen looked like starters. Neither Amber or Jasmine looked close to challenging Toni Kokenis at the point.