And so it ends…
The fact that it ends this way for every team but one each year makes it no less disappointing. The Windham boys team exited the DI tournament in the first round with a loss to Portsmouth in a score of 57-39. The loss dropped Windham to a record of 9-10 on the year.
The loss really came down to two factors—the largest being an inability to score inside or put any real pressure on the interior defense. As a point of note…Windham did not go to the line a single time in the game and drew only a couple fouls (literally). You can’t compete if you can’t impose your will and draw contact. This has been a consistent issue for Windham the past two years. In the prior season they posted a record of 8-5 under then coach EJ Perry but again bowed out in the first round of the DI tournament. Last year they had the dynamic scoring of Joey DaSilva to bail them out at times and while the team this year had some great outside shooting, it was not of a nature that could create its own shot like DaSilva could. Spot up and open shooting off skip passes or defensive lapses this team had down…it just was not able to put a player one on one and beat the other team.
The second factor in the game that came to the forefront was a lack of cohesive defense on backdoor cuts and pick and rolls. While Windham had throughout the years shown an ability to effectively double team ball handlers and switch on open players appropriately, they struggled here against the slashing and cutting Portsmouth team leading to numerous easy layups.
All in all it was not a bad season. 9-10 isn’t a bad showing for a team that lost its leading scorer and numerous starters from the year before and also switched coaches. The style they play however, regardless of the coach, will always be subject to letdowns, cold streaks, and ineffective play if they can’t develop an inside presence both offensively and defensively and multiple ball handlers who can break the press on their own. Being completely absent in the former (perhaps a bit by choice and style) and possessing only a single one of the latter leaves them subject to more physical, aggressive teams.
Oh…and the lighting and gym in Portsmouth? Wow…how horrid is that place? Its like playing in a dungeon…almost as bad as Timberlane. You can’t hardly see your hand in front of your face at times its so dark, the lights are literally from about 1920 and cast these weird shadows and sickly pall over everyone. And the rims? I’ve never heard a ball come off the metal that way before…it sounded like the ball was bouncing off a tin shanty out on a local pond…No wonder Portsmouth isn’t an outside shooting team…they can’t see the basket and there is zero chance of the ball getting a fair bounce off those hoops…just…wow….
On to the spring sports!
