The thief from Ashdod is this round's MVP following her team's important win at Ramat Hen. Another Ashdod representative joins her on the 1st team, along with three posts who put up big numbers. In 'After Shock', Safsal looks back at the thriller in Ramat Hen, notices a new trend and does a little math.
Round 9 MVP - Sherill Baker
Erin Phillips got 10 steals this season against Tel Kabir, but 8 against Ramat Hen has to count more. Other than Phillips no player finished with over 8 steals in one game in the last five seasons. Baker was aggressive from the jump against Ramat Hen on both ends of the court, finishing with 22 points and earning round MVP honors. Those bad decisions down the stretch though have to stop.
Round 9 First Team
Sherill Baker - Tied her season high of 22 points from the 1st game of the season, but this time only 6 of them came from the free throw line. She added 8 steals and great defense in Ashdod's big win.
Brasheeda Elohim - 17 points on good shooting and 8 rebounds for Ashdod's x-factor in the win at Ramat Hen.
LaToya Pringle - Huge game for Ramat Hen's post who was unstoppable with 26 points and 19 boards against Ashdod.
Charde Houston - Another day at the office for the most efficient player in the league with 16 points and 16 boards in Raanana Hertzeliya's win over Natanya.
Ayana Walker - Career high for Walker in Israel with 38 points against Ramat Hasharon, plus 17 rebounds (9 offensives) in Holon's tight loss.
After Shock
Not about refs
Allow us to talk a bit about the basketball we saw in Ramat Hen before the refs stole the show. Ashdod has to look long and hard on what the hell happened to them in the last two minutes, but overall this was their best game of the season even though Tamara Moore didn't find (or look for) her shot and Jennifer Humphrey had her weakest game of the season. Aside from Baker's display, the story to us was the Israelis
who scored 40 out of the 77 points, that's 52.6%. Ramat Hen on the other hand has to be worried about Matalya Belvin, who's defense didn't even show up on Monday and that simply cannot happen.
Good hospitality
Have you noticed the top teams are losing at home? Each of the five teams tied for 1st have lost at home. Only two of them, Ramla & Raanana Hertzeliya, lost just one home game. That means Ashdod, Ramat Hasharon and Ramat Hen lost only at home and are perfect on the road.
Israelis MIA
Tel Kabir's American trio scored 89 points on Monday against Hapoel Tel Aviv. That's more than Raanana Hertzeliya, Natanya, Ashdod, Ramat Hen, Bnei Yehuda, Holon and Ramat Hasharon scored on Monday. Tel Kabir's Israelis scored only 9 points but that's still more than what Holon's Israelis did – six points out of 69.
Latest stories
|
Sherill Baker
Photo: Motti Klinger |