Well-Rounded Effort Lifts OA Girls' Basketball to Sue Rivard Championship

It might have taken a little longer than anticipated, but the Oliver Ames girls’ basketball team got the memo delivered by coach Elaine Clement-Holbrook.

In what was the best all-around effort in the early part of the season, the Lady Tigers earned a decisive 82-32 victory over Plymouth South in the finals of the Sue Rivard tournament Wednesday night at the Nixon Gymnasium.

“My feeling was this was the best collective effort since the season started,” said Clement-Holbrook, whose team is now 4-0 on the year. “The main topic of conversation in the dressing room after the game was the pure example of teamwork.”

Thanks to the transition game, OA never trailed throughout the contest.

The Lady Tigers stole the ball 22 times while also dishing out 26 assists as a unit. As a result, OA was able to get many fast break opportunities and wear down Plymouth South.

“I think we played really well as a team,” said tournament MVP Candace Steadman (22 points). “We weren’t afraid to pass the ball around. No one was selfish and we really worked well together.”

“We had 26 steals and 22 assists and that in it and itself was great,” Clement-Holbrook added. “They worked so hard on making all of the little pieces fit and I was proud of them tonight.”

Caitlyn Abela – who joined Steadman on the all-tournament team – tallied 14 points on 7-of-12 shooting, while Allie Brennan (8 points), Kate Holleran (7 points), Kristin Ellis (6 points) and Jen Byron (6 points) put in solid performances off the bench. As a unit, OA shot over 66 percent from the field going 37-for-56.

The offensive contributions were just another example of the team buying into Holbrook’s message about generating chances through a good defensive effort.

“Coach [Holbrook] talked to us a lot about using the transition game,” Steadaman said. “We always try to use our defense to create our offense and I thought we were able to do that tonight.”

While Plymouth South (1-2) will look to put this result behind them, sophomore center Christina Jaros (13 points, 6 rebounds) was named to the all-tournament team in the losing effort joining Steadman, Abela, and Audrey Dolloff and Madison Barron from Bridgewater-Raynham.

OA looks to start 2012 on the right foot – much like it ended in 2011 – when they travel to Duxbury Monday night, Jan. 2, in the team’s second meeting of the season. The Lady Tigers won the first matchup between the two teams last Thursday night at the Nixon Gymnasium.

While Wednesday’s contest was another step in the right direction, Clement-Holbrook hopes her team continues to peak as the season progresses.

“I think we’ve seen steady improvement every game,” she said. “I don’t want to peak too early, but I certainly hope we don’t go backwards and regress. I want to see progress every single game and I think to this point that’s what we’ve seen.

“It was nice to end 2011 with a smile and hopefully we can keep that smile heading into 2012.”