Category Archives: Western Connecticut State

Western Connecticut scores 100 for the 6th time routing Newbury 118-68

Jancy Sherwood (25 points) hit six three’s against Newbury

Taylor Kelley (24) defends Genesis Torres (23)

(Danbury CT) “This is a whole new way of playing,” WestConn coach Kimberley Rybczyk told me afterwards.  No doubt about it.

Western Connecticut started fast, played everyone in every quarter, and routed Newbury, 118-68, in the opening game of the WCSU Hat City Tournament on Friday night.

During this past off-season, Coach Rybczyk decided to challenge herself and switched to an uptempo style. “I have been coaching twenty-five years and chose to come out of my comfort zone.  I spent the whole summer studying this style of play.”

Today was the sixth time the 6-4 Colonels have gone over one hundred points.

Western Connecticut was a bad matchup for the visiting Newbury Nighthawks.  They have been averaging 64 points per game and even though they passed that number against WCSU they still lost by fifty!

Newbury (5-5) was overwhelmed by the pace and the pressure from the get-go.  During a two-minute stretch in the first quarter a 3-2 game became 15-2.  It went downhill from there.

Coach Kimberley Rybczyk in front of the WestConn bench

One feature of the WestConn style of play was a complete change of players every few minutes.  “I want kids that are part of my program to get their feet out on the floor,” said Coach Rybczyk.  “I told my best players before the season they would play fewer minutes, but they would get twice as many shots and score twice as many points.  When that happened in our first two games, the new style of play was no longer even questioned.”

The steady influx of fresh bodies enabled the Colonels to wear out the Nighthawks in a hurry.

Genesis Torres (23) had seven assists and seven steals

On offense the Colonels ran every time they had the ball.  Later in the game, the speed turned up a steady flow of layups.  Throughout the game, the Colonels got great looks at 3-point shots and drained twenty-one from long range.

Junior Jancy Sherwood led all scorers with twenty-five points including six from beyond the arc.

On defense the Colonels pressured full-court.  The Newbury player inbounding the ball was ignored and the pass in made to be very difficult.  Once the ball was inbounds, a double-team arrived quickly.

In the halfcourt, the Colonels were always looking for places to apply double teams.  Those forty-six Nighthawks miscues tells you how effective WestConn was at it.

Destiny Spears and Jancy Sherwood

Destiny Spears of Newbury may well be the most tired player in Danbury tonight after logging thirty-six minutes.  Destiny finished with a very unusual triple/double: 15 points, 10 rebounds, and 14 turnovers.

The Nighthawks had a shocking forty-six turnovers in tonight’s loss.  The team from Massachusetts was victimized frequently by double teams that led to bad passes.

Jessica Davis of WestConn had a double/double as she put twelve points together with ten rebounds.

The best stat line of the night may have been by Genesis Torres: 15 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists, and 7 steals.  Nice work by the Stratford (CT) sophomore.

The Colonels have yet to make the uptempo style work in the Little East Conference where they are currently 0-2.

Good sportsmanship

Kaitlyn LaBonte (last season’s 2nd highest scorer) is injured but is expected to return soon for WestConn.

“I would rather teach the players how to play rather than plays,” said Coach Rybczyk.  “I got tired of teaching kids sets.  I want to teach them how to read, how to react.”

“We are early in on this system,” she added.  “We have plenty to work on.”

Western Connecticut moves on to the finals on Saturday.  Newbury gets the consolation game.

Box from the game

(All of the pictures above and below will enlarge considerably if you click on them.)

Jessica Davis (12 points, 10 rebounds)

Jancy Sherwood sets to draw a charge

Megan Hasty (22) had six assists

Emma Belcourt (13 points)

Asiah Knight (12) had eleven rebounds

Tashai Price in for two

Faith Thurmond shoots in traffic

 

 

 

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Western Connecticut State Defeats Richard Stockton 69-63 in Hampton Inn Basketball Classic

Kevin Johnson (1) defended by DaQuan Brooks (23).

(Danbury) Western Connecticut State University defeated Richard Stockton College, 69-63, in the first game of the Hampton Inn Classic on Friday night at Feldman Arena.

DaQuan Brooks (23) goes in for two of his twenty second-half points.

Senior DaQuan Brooks was the difference-maker for the Colonials of the Little East Conference down the stretch.

The visitors from the NJAC (New Jersey Athletic Conference) trailed by as many as thirteen points (50-37) in the second half but closed the gap to, 58-57, with 4:11 to play.  Enter DaQuan.  The talented 5-10 guard scored every point for WCSU the rest of the way.  He also had a block and a rebound.  Very impressive.

Stockton (1-4), despite traveling from Galloway (NJ) for the game, had the early lead (14-4) before the Colonials rode a couple of Ryan Pelletier 3’s to gain a, 24-21, advantage with 6:45 until halftime. The Colonials led, 34-31 at the half.

Sophomore guard Kevin Johnson put up ten points in the Ospreys, 20-8, surge in the second half that brought them within one point.

DaQuan (29 points) and Kevin (21 points) guarded each other throughout the game.  I sensed that the game within the game was their head-to-head matchup.  Both could get to the basket in a hurry and finish before any shot blockers arrived.

Bill McDonough (0) gets one of his nine rebounds.

Kevin had seventeen points in the second half and three steals in the game.  DaQuan had twenty points in the second half with six assists for the game.  Talented twosome!

The Colonials (3-1) will face Johnson & Wales on Sunday at home at 1PM.  The Ospreys get J&W tomorrow at the Feldman Arena at 1PM.

DiAndre Brown (15 points) had eleven of them in the first half.  The Colonials did a lot better job of denying him the ball in the second half.

DiAndre Brown and Bill McDonough each had nine rebounds for the Ospreys.  Mark Redding and Luis Bridtter did the same for the Colonials.

The best physical matchup had 6-7 Bill McDonough going against 6-7 Gary Robinson.  Gary’s defense had a lot to do with Bill’s 2-for-9 shooting for the game.

In a game played the day after Thanksgiving you’d expect some post-turkey effects but nothing was obvious.

Luis Bridtter (1) defends DiAndre Brown (3)

Who was Richard Stockton?  He was the first New Jersey delegate to sign the Declaration of Independence.

The Feldman Arena has everything you would want – good lighting, comfortable seating, an excellent floor, and plenty of parking.

My thanks to Colonials SID Scott Ames for supplying me with the stats I’m using for this entry.

The pictures enlarge to normal size if you click on them.

DaQuan Brooks (29 points)

Stockton coach Gerry Matthews & WCSU coach Bob Campbell

DiAndre Brown (15 points)

Mark Redding (12 points)

Gary Robinson

Pat Kelly

Michael Jensen

Salman Yusuff (22) goes for block.

Ryan Pelletier (4) shoots as Western coach Bob Campbell (standing) watches.

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