West Deptford Girls' Basketball Finds Silver Lining in Sterling's Black Cloud

The girls’ basketball team has driven off one black cloud this season, after .

But the task of driving off the other dark cloud–conference and Group 2 powerhouse Sterling, which knocked them out of the playoffs last year–has proved just out of the Eagles’ reach, as West Deptford fell to the Knights for the second time this season Thursday night, 63-45.

It was hardly time for head coach J McKeown to punch the panic button, however, as he watched his team hang with the Knights for most of the game, only falling short because of a rough night of shooting.

“[Sterling] seemed to make every shot,” McKeown said. While his team did everything he was looking for–exploiting their high-pressure defense to get turnovers and finding smart shots–he said against teams like Sterling, the only way to compete is for everything to come together.

“The ball just didn’t drop,” McKeown said.

It could have been a much narrower margin, had the Eagles been able to sink some of the shots that lipped out, banked off the rim or otherwise just wouldn’t fall; part of that frustration came from Sterling forcing West Deptford to the perimeter, where the Eagles’ shooters are weaker, and clogging the lane all night long.

“They usually take you out of what your best strengths are,” McKeown said.

Still, there were positives from the game: Danielle McKeown, Tarryn Bundy and Megan Kirschling all scored in double figures, a big improvement from the season opener, when no Eagle scored more than eight points.

That scoring effort showed in the box as well–apart from a lopside second quarter, West Deptford was even or just slightly behind Sterling every step of the game.

And the effort J McKeown saw on the floor–perhaps most epitomized by Kirschling diving after a rebound on a missed foul shot with about three minutes left in the game, despite the Eagles being down by 15 at the time–was everything he was looking for from the team.

That effort and desire points to the right mindset, J McKeown said, and he stressed to the players in post-game that they may have gotten outshot on the night, but they didn’t get outplayed, and come playoff time, things could look very different.

“They know they can beat them,” he said.