By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
CLAYTON — Most high school basketball coaches would agree that a three-game losing streak is never a good thing. But maybe that kind of skid is what the Woodstown High girls basketball team needed — call it a reminder that maybe the Wolverines weren’t as good as they thought when they were riding a seven-game winning streak that spanned most of January.
After beating Penns Grove on Jan. 21, Woodstown was 11-2 and riding high as one of the top teams in the Tri-County Conference. But then three straight setbacks — to Shawnee, Cinnaminson and Glassboro — in the span of four days had the Wolverines reeling.
Thursday night’s road game at Clayton was all about getting back to the things that made Woodstown successful earlier this season: sharing the ball, scoring in transition and playing lockdown defense. The Wolverines did all of that and more, racing out to a 16-0 lead to start the game before cruising to a 52-34 win over the Clippers.
“It’s never a good thing,” Woodstown coach Matthew Smart said about the recent skid, “but we kind of came together as a group (in practice on Wednesday) and talked about some things we needed to work on. We had open and honest conversations with each other, girls were challenging each other, challenging me. And we all agreed with the same things — it’s boxing out, it’s playing defense, it’s being unselfish. And when the girls go out and execute that, we’re unstoppable as a unit. We have a lot of girls who may not have scored a lot tonight but contributed in other ways, like boxing out, moving the ball, doing all those little things.”
Woodstown (12-5, 6-1 Tri-County Diamond) did just about everything right in the first half as it built an insurmountable 38-8 halftime lead behind star seniors Talia Battavio and Megan Donelson. At one point Battavio — who has 1,479 points and likely will be the school’s all-time leading scorer before her senior season is done — scored eight straight points as Woodstown jumped out to a 12-0 lead. She scored on a runner in the lane, four straight free throws and a driving layup after a steal. She showcased nearly all her skills, hitting seven shots from the field, including a 3-pointer, being perfect from the free-throw line and scoring a game-high 21 points. Donelson was just as good, racking up 15 points, including 11 in the first half.
“We wanted to work on our press and also get different people in with different players — like have Megan in with a new group, me in with a new group. Just feeling that out was good for us tonight,” Battavio said. “It was just staying together and knowing we needed to build back up again. We played together very well. We just have to keep working in practice and taking things one game at a time, and see how it goes.”
“Especially after the losses we’ve had recently, we definitely needed to work our confidence back up,” Donelson added. “It was good to come out firing like that. We did a much better job of rebounding the ball and working with our post players more, and we did well with our press breaks.”
Woodstown got a lot from the rest of its lineup as well, as five other players scored and did a lot of the dirty work on defense. The Wolverines also rebounded the ball well, limiting Clayton’s second-chance opportunities.
“Gianna (Maiorini, senior forward) is somebody who never gets the accolades, but she’s our quiet leader and does everything right,” Smart said. “She was getting our back line all in the right spots when we were playing zone defense; she’s phenomenal person. I think she’s president of the student council, she’s involved in so much and she’s so smart. When she comes onto the basketball court and she’s confident and being a leader, that’s when we succeed.”
Clayton (9-5, 3-3 Tri-County Classic) tried to get back into the game in the second half behind some strong play by Rainelle Blocker, who finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds, and Deondria Simon, who had nine points, four rebounds and three steals, but the first-half deficit was simply too much. The Clippers started the second half on a 12-0 run to get to within 38-20, but that’s as close as they could get.
“Coming off those three losses showed us things we needed to work on. Winning can hide a lot of flaws,” Smart said. “We came out playing unselfishly, we were rotating the basketball and not trying to take a 1-on-4 opportunity. We were pushing the ball and playing tenacious defense, and that unselfishness of saying, ‘OK, I may not score, but I’m going to find the open girl, or I’m going to cut off a screen, or I’m going to go find a girl to box out (for a rebound).’ Those are things that we preach all the time, and when we play that way, we play with confidence and that’s the key to us succeeding.”
Woodstown has four more regular-season games remaining plus the Tri-County Conference Tournament, so now is the time to start playing “Woodstown basketball” Smart said.
“We just want to play the best Woodstown basketball that we can. When we try to play other teams’ games, that’s when we don’t succeed. When we play our style, when we’re having fun and being confident and just working on the little things, that’s when we succeed. We always talk about the most important game is the next game. We’re not looking into the future because we know nothing is guaranteed. We just want to take it one practice at a time, and the girls have been good with that,” he said. “We talked about expectations in the beginning of the year, and our expectations were high. But we’re a different basketball team than last year, or two years ago. So we’re still trying to find the identity of who we are. There are games when we show it, and games when we don’t. That’s what we need to work on, just getting that identity.”
Added Donelson, “it’s going to take working together, having good ball movement. This gives us a boost of confidence. Having those losses and then getting this win just boosted our confidence. We really needed this win.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Woodstown travels to Pennsville on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. Clayton hosts Sterling tonight at 5:30 p.m.
