Skipjacks learn lesson, still win by double digits
HAGERSTOWN – The Skipjacks' first-half play didn't come as a surprise to Damon Nichols.
"The day before, we didn't have a good practice," said Chesapeake College's head women's basketball coach. "I told them, 'When you have a bad practice right before a game a lot of times that carries over into the first half of that next game.' "
And that's exactly what happened Wednesday at Hagerstown Community College, where the sluggish Skipjacks trailed early and needed a closing 14-4 run to build a 40-35 halftime edge. Chesapeake was much sharper in the second half, holding the Hawks to 27 points on the way to a 76-62 win.
"We played better in the second half, but we still had boxing-out issues," said Nichols, noting his squad is still rounding into form.
Sydney Small, who scored a game-high 20 points while shooting 6-for-11 from the field, agreed with Nichols about the root cause of Wednesday's listless first half.
"Everybody was kind of slacking off in practice," acknowledged Small, who combined with fellow freshman Brittany Taylor to score 25 first-half points. "We kind of learned our lesson from that."
Luckily, it wasn't a costly lesson for the unbeaten Skipjacks (2-0).
Chesapeake still triumphed easily in a rematch of last year's Region XX title game, which the Skipjacks won to reach their first national tournament. And Chesapeake also exorcised the memory of last year's regular-season loss at Hagerstown, in which the Hawks scored the game's final 10 points to hand Chesapeake one of its four losses.
Taylor (four assists, four rebounds, two steals) scored 15 points, Najah Chambers had 11 points, and Tyonna Teamer added 10 points as the Skipjacks placed four players in double digits. Katie Sprecher led Hagerstown (1-3) with 10 points.
Chesapeake shot 42 percent from the field and just 58 percent from the foul line, missing 10 of its 24 free throws. The Skipjacks, however, still won with both of their returning starters – all-American Denver Clyde and Rose Smith – missing the game with injuries.
"Everyone is stepping up because of the injuries," said Small.
And the Skipjacks – who lost Smith in the preseason and Clyde in the opening minutes of their first game – received lots of good news on the injury front. Clyde has a bruise rather than a fractured bone in her arm, and Smith is recovering more quickly than expected from a chipped ankle bone. Both are now expected back for Chesapeake's home opener against Garrett College on Saturday, December 1st.
"It will be good to get them back," said Nichols, who did have one new injury coming out of the Hagerstown game as Taylor suffered a first-half ankle sprain, but the sprain wasn't serious enough to keep Taylor out of the second half.
Notes: The Skipjacks – who finished seventh in the nation last season and were 18th in the NJCAA Division II preseason poll – actually dropped out of the poll this week despite beating Allegany by 37 points in their season opener, which was the only game they played before this week's poll was issued.