Incoming Recruits Shine at North-South Games Sunday

[falconfan1]

Before heading up to BG for the women's bball banquet (which was wonderful), I took in the two high school girl's North-South all-star games at Capital University. The rosters are made up of all the districts and some players are left off for a variety of reasons including availability. This would explain how one of the state's best score/creators/BG signee Lee Jennings was not on the court.

BG was the only team with three signees in the games. Lauren Prochaska (Jonathan Alder) and Kelly Zuercher (Waynedale) were on opposite sides in the D III-IV game. Crystal Murdaugh (Dublin Scioto) played in the big school game.

Prochaska was forced, due to roster make up, to guard the posts (including Zuercher) throughout the game. She got into a little foul trouble, but scored 14 points in her 18 minutes. I counted about 10 rebounds and three big blocked shots- including the game saving play in the last ten seconds with her team up two. As so often happens in all star games, the ball handlers control play and she didn't get a whole lot of touches on the wing. She drilled two out of three threes- and the third one was in and out.

She is silky smooth at the line and hit nothing but net on all six attempts. She remains rather spindly at 5'11", but is a gifted shooter/scorer. She jumps well; she outleaped a 6'2" all state vball player for the opening tip handily and played very "long" on defense. I am sure the weight room (based on the tales told at the banquet) will help Lauren immensely. She was officially presented with her D III State Player of the Year Award after the game.

Zuercher had many good moments in the game scoring 14 on 5 of 10 from the field and 4 of 4 at the line. About eight rebounds. She gets up and down pretty well for a big post- and she is a 6'2" physical post. She fouled out late as she was forced to foul on block attempts as the defense broke down in front of her. She received a fine ovation as she played very hard. As she gets in the weight room and keeps up with her conditioning, I think she will be a very good one. She certainly has a good touch from six feet in and can hit the foul shots. Uses her body well to block out; had a battle with Prochaska and OSU bound Sara Schulze inside for much of the game. She did have a couple turnovers as the quicker Prochaska and Schulze caused everyone problems.

Murdaugh scored seven with a three and 2 for 2 at the line. The big school game was even more controlled by the guards and Murdaugh, on the wing, didn't get the ball in good spots. She was probably the only player setting true screens and didn't force anything. She had several good assists and one very athletic rebound- getting way off the floor and over another player to force a key jump ball. She is a player who might be able to give bigger fours a lot of trouble with her quickness and be able to cover smaller fours and threes with her excellent wingspan.

Three other MAC bound players were in the line ups. Of the three, North Canton Hoover/Kent's point Stephanie Gibson showed considerable promise as a hard charging ball handler. She only made on 1 of 7 shots, but I think she will be a fine point guard. Howland/Kent post Ellie Shields struggled to get in the flow of the game and scored just one bucket. She will improve over time and is pretty big. UT signee from Lexington HS Goodall also scored just a single bucket and didn't get too involved. I am not counting her 22' banked three pointer from straight away- but I guess I should!

Go Falcons!

[Jacobs4Heisman]

Thanks for the update -- I can't wait to see these kids in action.

[Falconfreak90]

Thanks for the update, ff1. This class is gonna kick royal tail and keep the tradition humming right along.

GO FALCONS!

[falconfan1]

freak and jacobs, I have enjoyed watching thses Ohio signees a time or two. They are all good players. But there is a tremendous learning curve as we all know. I think they will all be eventual contributors- that is why we signed them. Yes, some will need to contribute almost ommediately. But they are HS players who must make a huge transition in so many ways to college life.

As far as basketball goes, strength, physical play, facing truly great players every day in practice and games (speed of play also) and coming off the bench will be among the biggest challenges for these eight players.

But the reason I make those posts is to let folks know that we do indeed have some basketball players in this OH group. And every live report I got on IL PG Pontius was extremely positive. Add in our bigger MI signee and it is quite a group.

Go Falcons!