Oak Park girls’ basketball squad searching for an inside presence

ADAM DAVIS/Acorn Newspapers PRACTICE TIME—Above, Suzanne Scrimenti dribbles past Cassandra Lee during practice Monday night. Below, Julie Shiebler, ght, does a one-on-one drill against Emily Brutto. The Eagles defeated Carpinteria, 45-6, in their league opener Tuesday night. And the streak goes on.

In its Tri-Valley League opener Tuesday night at Carpinteria, the Oak Park girls’ basketball team extended its league winning streak to 55 consecutive games with a 45-6 victory over the Warriors.

Julie Shiebler led the Eagles with 11 points. Meg Staab added nine points for OPHS.

“The defense really kicked in tonight,” head coach Bob DaCorsi said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to turn it around now.”

The victory helped Oak Park even its overall record at 7-7. They are 1-0 in the Tri-Valley.

Coming off a 2004-05 season which saw the team post a 21-5 record and advance to the quarterfinals of the CIF Division IIIA playoffs, and following a productive summer league campaign, Oak Park has struggled somewhat during the first half of the season, despite the impressive performance at Carpinteria.

DaCorsi said the Eagles are young and still learning how to win close games.

Oak Park lists five sophomores, six juniors and three seniors on its roster.

The coach added that his team continues to search for ways to replace three of its most productive players from last season— Alex Howard, Emily Medders and Summer Barry.

Howard is now playing at Sonoma State. Medders plays at Hofstra University.

“We’re still kind of searching for an identity after losing those three girls,” DaCorsi said. “We know we can score points, but we’re having trouble on defense and rebounding.

“Last year those three girls really controlled the boards,” the coach said. “This year we have to do more team rebounding, and they’re not really picking it up all that much early on.”

In years prior, OPHS would run an offense that consistently fed the ball into the post. Once the inside game was established, the outside would usually open up for the Eagle shooters to knock down baskets.

This year, however, without much of a true inside presence, the Eagles have been forced to rely heavily on the jumpshot.

When their shot are falling, Oak Park has been successful. But on the off nights, the missed jumpers become long rebounds and have hurt the team’s transition defense, DaCorsi said.

“A lot of the teams are just keying on our shooters, which is causing us some problems,” DaCorsi said. “But we’ve definitely changed our philosophy from last year. We’re not pounding it inside anymore. We’re trying to keep the game more up-pace.”

OPHS is expected to get a boost inside when 6-foot junior center Cassandra Lee is cleared to join the team.

After moving from Sweden, Lee needed a semester’s worth of grades to be eligible to play sports.

Lee worked with the team during the summer and is expected to be cleared to join the Eagles later this month when the school’s semester grades are released, DaCorsi said.

“I’ve played every single position in Sweden—guard, inside, outside,” Lee said. “But I feel most comfortable inside. I don’t like shooting that much from outside.”

DaCorsi said the addition of Lee should help ease the offensive burden being shouldered by Shiebler, Nicole Shaver and Amanda Ruland.

Shiebler, a senior, relocated from Louisville last season and had to spend a year on the junior varsity squad because transfer rules prohibited her from playing varsity sports for one year.

She had played her freshman and sophomore seasons on the varsity squad while in Louisville, DaCorsi said.

Currently, Shiebler is the TriValley’s leading scorer with an average of 20.1 points per game. She also leads the Eagles in rebounds, assists and 3-pointers.

“She’s a great all-around player,” DaCorsi said.

Shaver, the team captain, doesn’t post numbers that jump right off the stat sheet—although she does lead the Eagles in steals—but her coach said she’s been an invaluable player at Oak Park for several years.

“Nicole Shaver is the heart and soul of the team,” DaCorsi said. “She’s a four-year varsity player that has helped the previous three teams all put up 10-0 records in league.

“She’ll sacrifice her body. She’ll dive on the floor,” the coach said. “Doesn’t put up a lot of points, but assists and steals and taking charges and rebounds. If we didn’t have her we’d be in trouble.”

Ruland ranks second on the team with 10.4 points per game, although that number is down approximately seven points per game from a season ago when she was named All-CIF.

“She’s kind of struggling, but hopefully she can pick it up,” DaCorsi said.

As far as Oak Park’s long TriValley winning streak is concerned, Shaver, who’s currently nursing a sore lower back after taking five charges in a game earlier this season, said it’s always on the players’ minds, but they can’t let it consume them or affect they way they perform.

“The pressure is definitely there because you don’t want to be the team that loses the streak,” Shaver said. “You don’t want to be known as that. You want to be known as a team that kept it going.”

Oak Park hosts Fillmore tonight at 7 p.m.