Staff Report

Kate D’Ottaviano scored nine points coming off the bench in her varsity debut in this year’s season opener. Not a bad showing for a freshman.

All she did after that was lead the team in scoring in three of the next four games as Washington Township sprinted out to a 5-0 record in December. Keep your eye on D’Ottaviano because she’s going to be the centerpiece that this young roster builds around the next couple of years.

The Minutemaids’ roster features just three seniors and only one in the starting lineup in point guard Alaina LaMonica, and along with D’Ottaviano there are a couple of sophomores contributing on the stat sheet, including Tessa Reilley and Brianna Rainey.

Township coach Jennifer Natale said D’Ottaviano was a little hesitant in her debut, but after she gained her footing in the Minutemaids’ win over Kingsway on Dec. 20, she’s been on a roll. She led the team with 15 points in that game and added 16 in a win over Pennsville and 17 in a victory over West Deptford two days after Christmas.

D’Ottaviano has a lot of variety to her game, as she can shoot the mid-range shot, work the baseline, get into the paint to draw fouls, and she can mix it up on the offensive glass to get easy second-chance points. So far she’s averaging a little more than 12 points per game, tops of the team. Her contributions on the offensive end are going to be important for Township because aside from LaMonica (9.8 points per game), no other player averages more than 5 ppg so far. The Minutemaids are going to need that kind of production from D’Ottaviano and LaMonica so the rest of the squad can play aggressive defense. So far, only Delsea and Kingsway have been able to score more than 30 points against Township.

“She’s extremely talented. She’s so versatile and I think that’s one of her biggest strengths. We’re very lucky to have her,” Natale said of D’Ottaviano following the early season win over Kingsway. “She started (for the first time), so there are those nerves, and I believe she just needed that first half to settle in. We count on her. It’s only the second game of the season, but she gives us so much. She started to figure it out. She takes direction really well and she’s so talented. She’s not afraid to go to the basket and she can post up if we need her to.”

— Dave O’Sullivan, Staff Writer