Woodland looks for consistency, composure through growing pains
BEACON FALLS — The game of basketball is marked by a series of ebbs and flows. Consistency and composure are the two essential ingredients that never show up on the stat sheets but are needed in order to survive the ups and downs of the game.
Three weeks in to the basketball season the Woodland girls (1-5) are learning those hard lessons of reality.
The Hawks have left a few games on their plate already, including tough losses to Oxford by six points and to Kaynor Tech by five points, as they hit on just 19 of 38 foul shots in the process.
Senior captain Becky Hale is showing herself to be a team leader and led the Hawks with 13 points in the loss to Kaynor Tech. Junior captains Carla Piccolo and point guard Cameron Caswell bring experience to a young lineup along with junior Jill Chicano, who works to control the boards.
The rest of the Hawks are young with sophomores Jenna Pannone, Jen Triana and Maddie Hupprich gaining experience along with freshmen Haley Andrews and Erika Michie providing key roles.
But there have been growing pains as the learning curve continues and it all comes down to gaining some consistency and keeping the composure when things don’t go their way.
On Saturday the Hawks hosted Bacon Academy, a team that has won two state championships in the past five seasons. This game would prove to be a good test as to where Woodland is in the season and how the Hawks compare with a team the caliber of the Bobcats.
The Hawks showed themselves well for a better part of three periods until a moment of frustration led to Woodland becoming unraveled and a 56-39 defeat.
“I wanted this type of challenge against a team like this and we prepared for them,” Woodland head coach Jess Moffo said. “For the most part we did what we had to do but it all comes down to composure. We stopped them four times in a row and then turn the ball over three straight times. You can’t win games like that.”
The Hawks got on the board at 4:13 of the first period when Caswell (four points, four assists) got a pass through the defense for a backdoor bucket by Pannone (six points, four rebounds).
Piccolo (12 points, five rebounds, three assists) hit a runner in the lane and knocked down all four of her free throws in the opening quarter, but Woodland trailed 13-8 as the quarter was winding down.
Hale (11 points, four rebounds) took a pass from Caswell out on the wing and floated one through the cylinder at the buzzer to cut the deficit at 13-10 and the Hawks were very much in the game.
The one glaring stat that would come back to haunt Woodland was that Bacon Academy was putting up shots and the Hawks were just trying to get it past the defense. The Bobcats outshot Woodland 56-34 and that proved to be the difference in the game.
“Becky Hale showed why she is the senior captain today,” Moffo said. “Carla Piccolo needs to score more and she came out and did a great job. We had a couple of players lose their composure today and it hurt us.”
The Bobcats relied on Abby Willauer (19 points, 12 rebounds) to stay out in front and her eight points in the second quarter had Bacon Academy on the verge of running away with the game.
Triana hit an inbounds bucket to cut the lead at 19-16 before the Bobcats went on a 6-0 run. Woodland was close to heading into the half down by double digits when Hale came through again with another buzzer beater as her three-pointer cut the lead to 25-19 at the break.
The Hawks were in the game trailing 30-25 with 4:14 left in the third period after Pannone converted a bucket off an inbound pass. Then Woodland made a couple of careless decisions with the ball sparked by a lack of composure and the Bobcats jumped at the opportunity ripping off an 8-0 run.
Andrews went coast-to-coast on a steal to end the third period and opened the fourth period with a pull up jumper from the corner as the Hawks trailed 38-31.
Bacon Academy then put the finishing touches on the game, hitting a three-pointer and outscoring the Hawks 15-8 the rest of the way.
“We are not in the position we want to be but we just need to put this behind us and prepare for the next game,” Moffo said. “I think we showed to ourselves that we can play with a team like this, but once you lose your composure you are not going to compete with anyone.”
Woodland will visit Wilby Tuesday at 5 p.m. before heading to Derby Jan. 6.
