Harford loss started Skipjacks on road to title
WYE MILLS – Harford Community College’s 70-47 rout of Chesapeake College was the Skipjacks’ only home loss of the last two years, and the only blemish so far in an otherwise-perfect women’s basketball season.
It may also be why the Skipjacks are now two-time state champs.
“It was definitely a wake-up call,” sophomore forward/center Rose Smith said of the regular-season loss to the Owls, which Chesapeake avenged with Sunday’s 59-53 victory in the state tournament final at Harford.
“It wasn’t just a loss – they beat us by 23 points,” observed Smith. “We just had to shake it off and basically move on. We didn’t play up to our potential in that game. We didn’t play our best in the championship game, but we played good enough.”
“I think it (a sense of urgency) hit us after the ‘L’,” said Chesapeake sophomore point guard Brittany Taylor. “I guess we figured (before that loss) that no one could beat us. We had to play up to our potential, come together and play as one.”
“After that first Harford game we started playing a lot better,” said sophomore forward Katara Pressley. “That game was a reality check.”
It was also a rallying point for the Skipjacks, according to freshman guard Sydney Small.
“It gave us more motivation to go beat them in the tournament,” said Small. “We knew we could beat them and we had something to prove. I think that’s why we went in there and played so hard.”
“They’re right – it was the turning point of our season,” said Chesapeake head coach Damon Nichols of the Harford loss. “The game that we lost to Harford, we didn’t do anything right. We didn’t run our offense; we didn’t play defense.”
Nichols said his team had to experience a defeat in order to figure out how to win on a big stage.
“You get that one loss and you have to learn from it,” said Nichols. “That’s what they did – they starting playing better defense and boxing out.”
Properly motivated, the Skipjacks played closer to the potential that all-American sophomore guard/forward Denver Clyde saw from the beginning.
“I saw this happening before the season even started,” said Clyde of the Skipjacks’ near-perfect season.
Pressley said it took this year’s team longer to begin reaching its potential than last year’s 28-4 squad, which won both state and region titles on the way to a seventh-place finish at the NJCAA Division II national tournament.
“We had more chemistry last year around this time than this year,” said Pressley. “We’re still building our chemistry, but it’s starting to mesh now.”
That could mean trouble for the Skipjacks’ NJCAA Division II Region XX tournament rivals. Chesapeake is 11-0 against Division II Region XX opposition and will be the top seed in the tournament, which takes place March 1-3 at Frederick Community College.
“We’ve still got to come ready to play,” noted Clyde, “if we want to get back to nationals.”
“There’s still a little bit more to accomplish,” said Nichols, adding there are several teams in the tournament field with the talent to beat Chesapeake if they get hot in the tournament.
“We just can’t overlook teams,” added Small. “We have to play them basically how we played Harford on Sunday.”