Triton No Match for Lady Chargers

The treacherous month that has been February seems to be paying off for the Timber Creek girls' basketball team.

They have played 10 games this month; after Thursday night, they have won eight of them.

Until Thursday, most of the Lady Chargers wins have come with the caveat that they weren't yet playing the type of basketball their coach expects of them—the type of basketball that will win playoff games.

This time Timber Creek opened the game with 22 unanswered points to run away, 80-24, in an easy win over visiting Triton. Jasmine Martin poured in 31 points and Deanna Miller added 13.

It was one of the Lady Chargers' most complete efforts of the season. In addition to putting the Lady Mustangs against the ropes with a dominant 26-4 first quarter performance, Timber Creek (16-5) never let them back into the game by displaying some suffocating defense throughout the contest. 

That drew a smile from head coach Donna Clark.

"That's the type of defense that can win you championships," the coach said.

She was clearly referring to the final two rounds of the South Jersey Invitational Girls Basketball Tourney this weekend.

It was the type of defense that Clark had been looking for since the Holy Cross game on Feb. 5, when she challenged her team to stop allowing too many open looks at the basket. The type of defense that controls the outcome no matter what.

Triton's shooters looked uneasy dealing with the Chargers' zone defense all night and were no match for Martin and Miller off the glass. Miller collected eight rebounds, while Martin's big night included 10 boards.

Martin's solid stat line, which came despite playing only sparingly in the second half, was rounded out with five steals.

Timber Creek now will turn its attention to Rancocas Valley—its opponent tonight at 6:30 in the SJ Invitational semifinals at Sterling High School.

The outcome of tonight's game against the Courier-Post's top-ranked girls' hoops team will decide when on Sunday the Lady Chargers will play. The Lady Chargers next game will either be in the elite tournament's consolation game, scheduled for 2 p.m., or its championship, scheduled for 4 p.m.

"It's one game at a time, but we are looking to win that," Clark said.

Coming out of the weekend, Timber Creek will face off against Shawnee, Lenape and then Seneca in a three-day stretch.  

                                            1       2         3       4      Final

Triton                              4         9           6         5          24

Timber Creek              26       20        16        18          80