Michael Nussbaum ’11
Sports EditorOn Feb. 2, the Staples Girls’ varsity basketball team fell to 11–5 on the season with a 38–26 loss to the Stamford Black Knights, who improved to 11–2 on the season.

The story of the game was Staples’ lack of execution on the offensive end, along with being “overpowered,” as coach Ed Huydic put it, by a “very good Stamford team” on the defensive side of the ball.

After ending the first quarter tied 5–5, both teams struggled on offense.

Staples began the game with a full court, 2–2–1 press, in which starting guards, Captain Suvi Puritpattarapan ’10 along with Chelsea Salamone ’10 created pressure for the Black Knights and as a result, forced them to over 10 turnovers in the first period.

“Stamford had one of their best games that night and it definitely showed through their defense…it really threw us off.” said forward Nicole Brill’

In addition to Stamford’s array of zone and man defenses, the Wreckers found themselves in early foul trouble, throwing them off their rhythm.

“I should have played smarter defense,” said Brill, “Their post players were really strong and were winning rebounds over me.”

The Wreckers as a team felt the same way.

“Rebounding was a major factor to our loss of the game because we were out rebounded many times which gave the other team second opportunity to score,” said Puritpattarapan.

Even though Staples succeeded in putting the Black Knights out of rhythm on offense, the efforts contributed by the Stamford front court were too much for Staples to handle.

Standouts Jasmine Jones ’10 and Kim Mannarino ’10 contributed to 23 of the 38 points scored, much of which came in the second half.

“Going into the half, we had a pretty good idea of what they were going to do,” said Coach Huydic about the offensive strategy of Stamford, “they were struggling from three so we knew they were going to pound it inside against us.

The Black Knights scored the remainder of their points in the second half through Jones and Mannarino.

The Wreckers struggled to defend the entry pass into Jones, who received the passes from guards, Kelsey Cognetta ’12 and Ebony Razor ’11.

Even in facing a loss, “We learned a lot from this game…with Jess Coehlo ’12 injured, we really need to control the inside game if we are going to want to contend later in the season,” said Coach Huydic.

Guard Jaclyn Katz ’11 agreed, “Going into the next four regular season games, we hope to have much higher scoring, and to play offensively how we’ve been playing defensively.”

Staples will look to improve on their record as they face their cross-state rival, the Greenwich Cardinals, tonight at 7 p.m.