You probably noticed that Wellington handled Columbia pretty easily Wednesday night.
What you might not have noticed is the Raiders (6-6) have already won as many games as they did last season — and sophomore star Emily Nagle is among the top Patriot Athletic Conference players in five statistical categories.
In PAC games only, Nagle is tops in scoring average (18.3 points) and total points (146). She’s tied with Clearview’s Ariel Calhoun for most free throws (42) and is second to Jessie Hall of Buckeye in field goals with 49. She’s tied with three other players — including Clearview’s Sarah Scheithauer — for most 3-pointers (6).
“She’s very offensive minded,” said coach Larry Babics. “A lot of the stuff we do goes through her. She’s a go-to kid. She makes her shots and free throws.”
Columbia has lost conference games to Wellington, Brookside, Brooklyn, Oberlin and Clearview. But the young Raiders handed Keystone one of its two PAC defeats.   
“We’re young, but we’re learning how to win,” Babics said. “We’re optimistic.”
They should be. They’re achieving with three freshmen, three sophomores and two juniors.
Want to check up on PAC stats? The conference has a comprehensive website, www.pactensports.com.

Positive altitude

Shalanda Harvey, The Chronicle’s player of the week, can jump very high. She’s so good at jumping high she’s the top high jumper on the Admiral King track and field team. Had a conversation with King coach Cheryl Bansek the other day on the subject of Harvey’s jumping ability.
How high does she jump? Well, said Bansek, no one knew for certain. Just high. So she and the coaching staff decided to find out at practice Monday afternoon. Her vertical leap was 25 inches “and she was barely warmed up,” Bansek said.
I can hardly lift a foot that high.

Lowrie on a roll

Bay’s Lindsey Lowrie broke her own school record Wednesday night when she buried eight
3-point baskets at Midview. Her previous mark was six.
Lowrie is having a great season. She was the Rockets’ most solid player last year, but coach Chris Brewer said he didn’t think his senior star had reached her potential.
Apparently he was right. The Rockets have hovered around the .500 mark this season, but Lowrie is having a career year. She leads the team in every statistical category. Heading into this week’s action, she was averaging 15.5 points, nearly eight rebounds, 5.6 assists and 4.2 steals per game.
In addition, she has now made 27 3-point field goals, leads in field-goal shooting (43 percent) and foul shooting (75 percent). Katie Kinkelaar is scoring nearly 10 points a game and Sarah Vick is averaging 7.1 boards. Kinkelaar and Brittany Wenzell have scored nine 3-pointers apiece. Pam Urwin is a 74 percent foul shooter.

Fan participation

You can spot them right away.
They’re the few fans who start out hollering, “Call it both ways, ref.” They bellow about phantom three-second violations and lapse into long, loud accusations about the ref’s integrity. Sometimes they make personal verbal attacks on an official. And much too seldom, in my opinion, a ref stops the game and has an offending fan tossed.
Such tossings seem to be on an upswing. I’ve seen three or four so far, including one Wednesday night at Keystone. A Clearview fan got on one of the refs, who in turn spoke to the authorities about showing him the door. Clearview staff people helped. Don’t know who he was, but on the way out he announced loudly that he had attended Admiral King.
Go figure.
The record in my experience came just before the turn of the century — 11 fans booted one season, including one at a girls JV game.
The winners: First prize, a game at Huron where a woman walked onto the court to confront an official face to face. She then walked off the floor and out the gym door, coincidentally as the gendarmes were organizing an escort.
Second prize — the spouse of a head coach was tossed early in a game with an old and rancorous rival while the coach watched from the bench.

Happy campers

The Admirals have joined with Southview to attend summer basketball camps at Bansek’s alma mater, Clarion University, the past two years. This year, Admiral King will be traveling alone to one of three team camps sponsored by North Carolina and legendary coach Sylvia Hatchell.

---

Print this story
Report an inappropriate comment

---

In order to comment, you must agree to our user agreement and discussion guidelines.

Need help? Email Us.

---