Eagles’ aggressiveness, depth throttle Patriots

Before sending his Mills Godwin Eagles onto their home floor last night to play Patrick Henry, Mark Seidenberg wrote the keys to success on the team-room blackboard for all to see.

"Stop the guards, push the ball, attack the boards at both ends," explained the veteran coach who's back on the basketball sideline after an eight-year hiatus. "That was the plan."

As he spoke afterward with his tie loosened and a smile on his face, his pregame words rang prophetic.

Using an aggressive man-to-man, running with impunity, and controlling the paint, Godwin, No. 9 in the T-D Top 10, defeated the Patriots 69-54 to stay perfect at 3-0.

"We have aggressive girls," Seidenberg said. "We actually have a deep team. We have a lot of energy. We can play any 10. I don't think we lose anything when we put subs in."

The Eagles established their domination midway through the first period. With the score tied at 11 three minutes into the game, they went on a 10-0 run during the next 4:10 and never looked back.

"We really picked up our defense, focused on [Taylor] Huber and [Katie] Anderson, and tried to shut them down," said MG's Michelle Foley of the PH guards.

"On offense, we just tried to work the ball around and take good shots.

"And we really stress pushing the ball to wear out other teams because we're in pretty good shape."

At halftime, Godwin had the Patriots out of their offensive rhythm (7 for 24 shooting), held a 30-14 advantage in the paint and led 33-18.

"This shows the girls the importance of coming out and playing your hardest from the get-go," PH coach Leslie Nuckols said.

"Our plan was to give them one shot. All of a sudden, they were getting three, four shots. We wanted to run, but you can't run if the other team gets four shots and puts it in the basket.

"My girls did a much better job the second half."

The Patriots left the locker room inspired and played their Colonial District foes even the rest of the way.

Try as they might, however, they never cut their deficit to single digits.

At 5:24 in the fourth quarter, Gracie Schmitt hit a baseline jumper to bring PH to 54-43, but Foley answered with a stick-back, and, at 4:24, Tricia Watkins followed with her fourth 3-pointer to thwart the visitors' comeback attempt.

"I'm not supposed to shoot 3s the first time around," Watkins said with a laugh. "Thankfully, I was hitting them."

The Eagles, who controlled the boards 45-29, hit 27 of 67 shots from the field. The Patriots were 23 for 54. Both teams had 18 turnovers.

Patrick Henry ------------------------- 13 5 18 18 -- 54
Mills Godwin ------------------------- 21 12 16 20 -- 69

Patrick Henry (1-1, 2-1) -- Huber 9, Willis 0, Anderson 7, Freeman 4, Smith 6, Schmitt 19, Kenney 2, Winston 5, Morton 2, Brim 0. Totals: 23 6-10 54.

Mills Godwin (1-0, 3-0) -- Geoghegan 3, Henshaw 2, Cole 1, Foley 18, Nichols 11, Teague 0, Chapman 0, Foster 4, Watkins 18, Sisson 12. Totals 27 10-14 69.

3-point goals: PH Smith 2, MG Watkins 4, Sisson.