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JERSEY SHORE-- Jersey Shore coach Mike Schall often refers to Bulldogs senior forward Jocelyn McCracken as being "farm strong." McCracken has been a force to reckon with down low in the paint all season for Shore, particularly the past two seasons, and was again on Friday night. In the first of two crosstown rivalry games in the span of the next three weeks, Jersey Shore opened up the game with a 20-point first quarter, forced 14 Central Mountain turnovers and dished out 10 team assists in a 53-28 win, a third consecutive for the Bulldogs.
Junior Peyton Dincher notched another 20-point scoring outburst, tallying 22 points, six rebounds and two steals while McCracken scored six points, grabbed nine rebounds and had three steals. Sophia Stover added 11 points.
"This is a real thing, she's farm tough. She's strong and athletic," coach Schall said of McCracken after the win. "When she goes with her mind, her body has the tools to follow and be pretty tough to stop."
McCracken's efforts in the paint were one of a few Bulldog stabilizers in the victory. Six of the senior's nine boards came on the defensive end and three of them were offensive rebounds, which gave the Bulldogs a plethora of second-chance points. McCracken is seen doing the dirty work to give her teammates the pretty looks and the shine.
Senior Cailyn Schall directed Shore's offense to a pleasant game, dishing out five assists while committing just one turnover. Jersey Shore's returning upperclassmen set the tone well and early for the rest of the team to handle for the remainder of the contest, helping the Bulldogs roll to another win.
After a slow offensive start to the game, Central Mountain wasn't really ever able to catch their wind. Scoring was a difficulty early on, and when the Wildcats could score it was in small spurts. Lena Walker scored a team-high seven points, Camdyn Weaver six and Taylor Doyle five. Turnovers became a problem as the Wildcats committed 11 in the first half.
"We knew we were facing a good team tonight but we were hoping for a better showing than we ultimately got," Central Mountain coach Scott Baker said. "They're the standard for our division. It didn't help that we didn't knock down shots that we did have that were open but they (Jersey Shore) apply pressure to you, they're quick, they've got weapons on offense so when you get down you start pressing. Against a good team you can't leave points on the floor. We're struggling offensively."
Dincher was a problem for Central Mountain's defense all night, and had three offensive rebounds to go with a couple of steals. Schall scored just four points but continued to thrive in her role facilitating the offense, helping to drive-and-kick to players like Stover, who connected on three triples.
Jersey Shore got its lead early, going ahead 20-7 in the first eight minutes. Dincher and McCracken scored 16 of the Bulldog 20 points and Stover and Schall had two assists each as Shore continued to share the rock in its pass-oriented offense.
"We're settling into a flow earlier in the game and we talk about poise with the basketball a lot," coach Schall said. "They're doing a better job of getting into that flow and making better decisions."
While the scoreboard looked good with the Bulldogs racking up points and seeing the ball go through the net, Shore had its defense to thank for its lead continuing to build. While Central Mountain struggled to shoot the ball in the opening quarter, it did finally get some life mid- second quarter as Weaver found some paths to the basket to keep Central Mountain alive, down just 13 halfway through the quarter.
Following a timeout, Shore got back on its high horse defensively, forcing turnovers and getting easy baskets in transition that blew the game open by halftime. Jersey Shore's ability to switch defenses from man-to-man to zone and apply full-court pressure gave Central Mountain problems in the first 16 minutes, where the Bulldogs held the Wildcats to six points in the quarter.
"Yeah for sure, we definitely want to go hard on defense throughout the whole game," Dincher said after the win. "We knew Central Mountain was going to play hard the entire 32 minutes and we had everything going in the first (quarter) and then we slowed down on our defense the rest of the way but we'll get it."
The Bulldogs' dissatisfaction with its defensive effort in the first half brought out a focused mentality to begin the third quarter. The Bulldogs began the first three minutes, 16 seconds of the period scoring five unanswered points that culminated to a 10-point quarter, holding the Wildcats to just five points.
"It helped us get going early, just forcing a couple of turnovers and getting some good looks in our transition game," coach Schall said about Shore's defense. "But to be honest we weren't very good with our defensive effort. We kind of leveled off and we wanted to keep increasing as far as our effort, responsibility and attitude."
That defensive effort gave way to Shore's fourth quarter, where Schall continued to control the offense. Schall helped set up the Bulldogs offense by getting the ball moving around, directing traffic and attacking gaps in Central Mountain's defense where she was able to draw defenders and make the right plays.
Schall went over her average in assists per game (3.5) but she could have been credited with more assists than what she had given her hockey assists. Her ability to set teammates up with an extra pass for an open 3 or a wide-open layup was timely.
"Cailyn (Schall) is just seeing me off all those cuts really well. She sees the floor great every backdoor cut so that really helps," Dincher mentioned. "She's our playmaker, she sees the floor so well and she's a big part of this team. She reverses the ball, all of it."
Central Mountain dropped its second consecutive games, including its second of three games after falling to Penns Valley on Monday night and beating Danville on January 2. After a 4-1 start, the Wildcats have struggled to score, totaling just 53 points in its last two outings.
"We've got to execute better, that's something we've talked about," coach Baker mentioned. "We were having success early in the year because we were running around defensively, gambling, and we were having success with that. But now we've got to be more disciplined. We're fouling and getting back-doored because we're not disciplined in position to do anything."
Friday night's showing was a solid, all-around Bulldog effort. Just two Shore players hit double figures but six scored. The Bulldogs also held Central Mountain to three single-digit scoring quarters. With Stover posing as Shore's second leading scorer, swishing through three 3-pointers, the Bulldog junior core is helping the puzzle fit together.
McCracken and Celia Shemory, the lone seniors, are setting the foundation but various juniors are showing forth strong efforts that will be critical with the Bulldogs' strength of schedule for the remainder of January and into crunch time in February.
"Our seniors have been tremendous leaders for everybody in the program and it starts in practice. They do it in vocal ways and they do it really well in non vocal ways," coach Schall said. "It sets the tone for what we want known which is Lady Bulldog basketball. We had a good crowd tonight, we have great community and family support, so we're working hard every day to get them something worth watching."
Jersey Shore’s ninth win of the season could not have come at a more perfect time. The win sets up a prime conference matchup with No. 1 seed Shikellamy (10-4, 4-0 HAC-I) on Tuesday evening at home.
The Bulldogs understand the assignment is going to be tough, but Shore prepares for one each game like tonight's--a team you want to get one-up on.
"There's solid basketball and quality opponents across the area and we have some good ones coming up," coach Schall concluded. "We really focus on the next one being our rival. Everybody talks about rivalry games but our next one is our rival every time so we have fun with it."
CENTRAL MOUNTAIN (28)
Macy Plowman 1 2-2 4; Camdyn Weaver 3 0-2 6; Lena Walker 3 0-0 7; Taylor Doyle 2 1-2 5; Keely Rohrbach 1 0-0 2; Ava Doyle 1 0-0 2; Jacey Tripp 1 0-0 2. Totals 12 3-6 28.
JERSEY SHORE (52)
Peyton Dincher 10 2-2 22; Sophia Stover 4 0-0 11; Avery Depasqua 1 0-0 2; Cailyn Schall 2 0-2 4; Hannah Heaton 2 0-0 4; Jocelyn McCracken 3 0-2 6; Celia Shemory 1 2-2 4. Totals 23 4-8 53.
CM 7 6 5 10-28
JS 20 11 10 12-53
3-point goals: Jersey Shore 3 (Stover 3). Central Mountain 1 (Walker).
Records: Jersey Shore 9-3. Central Mountain 6-6.