"I think we're improving, but there's a long way to go," said Flanagan answering the aforementioned question in true Belichickian form, which always looks ahead and never behind.
With eight regular season games still to be played, Flanagan's point is certainly accurate. However, the current three-game winning streak that Gloucester is riding also seems to validate the point that the Fishermen are indeed playing at their highest level of the winter thus far.
The Scoop at the Hoop
Matt Langone
When you ask Jon Flanagan if he believes his Gloucester girls basketball team is playing their best ball of the season, the Fishermen head coach channels his inner Bill Belichick.
"I think we're improving, but there's a long way to go," said Flanagan, answering the aforementioned question in true Belichickian form, which always looks ahead and never behind.
With eight regular-season games still to be played, Flanagan's point is certainly accurate. However, the three-game winning streak that Gloucester is riding also seems to validate the point that the Fishermen are indeed playing at their highest level of the winter thus far.
The reason for the success is easy to pinpoint for Flanagan.
"Well, certainly being healthy is one aspect and the other is how we've been playing defensively," said Flanagan, whose team is 7-4 overall and 5-3 in the Northeastern Conference South. "It begins with the energy and enthusiasm of the team."
During this winning streak, the Fishermen have played suffocating defense and haven't allowed more than 43 points in victories over Lynn Classical, Salem and Beverly. Gloucester has used its 10-deep roster to hound opponents, while keeping all of its players fresh to run around the court and trap the ball.
It's also been beneficial to have senior guard Jill Lukegord back in the lineup for the last three contests after she missed five games with a sprained ankle. Lukegord is an athletic do-everything type of player, who is averaging 8.5 points per game. She also uses last year's 4-14 campaign as added motivation this winter.
"Having Jill's experience back in the lineup has helped a great deal," said Flanagan. "She is one of the people who experienced the poor season last year, and she doesn't want to go through that again."
While the Fishermen have been stingy defensively, they have also had a difficult time producing points. Gloucester has only scored 50 or more points four times. It has been the team's inability to score on a consistent basis that prevented the Fishermen from knocking off NEC powers Peabody and Danvers. In both games, Gloucester was still competitive, falling by 12 points in each.
"The idea is that we need to get more points in transition," Flanagan said.
Freshman point guard Hannah Cain leads the team in scoring at 12.5 points per game. Lindsey Rogers (9.5 ppg), Lukegord, Olivia Lufkin (7.7 ppg) and Alicia Unis (6 ppg) have also proved to be capable scorers at times this year.
The Fishermen may not possess that one end-of-the-game, go-to player, but Flanagan likes the fact that several players on his team are capable of scorching an opponent.
"It's a great luxury because other teams can't key on one player," he said.
Gloucester needs just three more wins to qualify for the state tournament, an accomplishment that has happened in eight of Flanagan's previous 10 seasons at Gloucester. The schedule will be tough down the stretch, beginning at home with 10-3 Lynn English tonight (7 p.m.). Two meetings with mighty Winthrop and rematches with Swampscott and Danvers are also on the February landscape.
"(Tonight) will be a good test against Lynn English," Flanagan said. "It should be a tournament atmosphere."
...
Because it came in a 17-point loss, Tia Nelson's accomplishment against Hamilton-Wenham on Monday night may have gone unnoticed.
The junior forward remarkably scored 21 of her team's 23 points in a 40-23 loss to the Generals. Nelson, a team captain, is averaging 14 points per game this winter and is the leading girls hoops scorer on Cape Ann. Meanwhile, the rest of the Vikings team has produced very little in the scoring category. Rebeccah Tibert is second on the team at 4.5 ppg.
"(Tia) has been our offense," said Rockport head coach Steve O'Connor, whose team is struggling at 2-9. "She has started on varsity for three years, and this year it has been necessary for her to score because the team is so young. She works really hard on her game."
...
Time is running out on the state tourney hopes of the Manchester Essex boys basketball team.
The Hornets sit at 4-8 going into tonight's home tilt against a strong Wilmington team (6:30). Manchester would have to finish no worse than 6-1 in its final seven games to earn a postseason berth.
The Scoop at the Hoop, a column on local high school basketball, appears every Friday during the winter season. Contact sports editor Matt Langone at mlangone@gloucestertimes.com.
