January 29, 2015
By Louis Oprisa
The days of Karissa Core being City’s sole point guard in the wake of Taylor Pompilio’s season-ending knee injury appear to be over. At least for now.
Wednesday night’s game at City College featured women’s head coach Jamie Angeli rotating three different point guards in the Lady Beavers’ 54-50 loss to Hunter, a tactic not yet seen in the wake of Pompilio’s ACL tear.
Carol Yu got her first start of the season, playing 25 minutes, while Core came off the bench for 14 and Shanell Bellamy played for 16. The results were mixed.
Yu didn’t score on her three shot attempts, which was unsurprising given that Angeli has openly conceded she’s not much of a scoring option. Yu did led the team with three assists however.
“Carol’s always been a hard worker and up to the challenge so I wanted to give her an opportunity. I saw some good things. What I always expect from her is her working hard. She’s got a great heart. She’s not as physically gifted as some of the other girls on the court as far as size or strength. Some of her passing needs to improve, but she hasn’t played a lot of minutes this year so, obviously the more time she gets the better she’ll get,” said Angeli.
Yu was noticeably more vocal on the court in her first five minutes in action than Core has been at all this season. Although she committed three turnovers, she distributed passes with more regularity and was visibly calling more plays. Whatever her faults may be, she appears to have passed tonight’s test – for now. When asked if he would be playing her more minutes, Angeli was concise in his response.
“Definitely,” he confirmed.
None of this should come as a surprise, or sound like a slight against Core – it just simply reaffirms Core is a better fit as a shooting guard, while Yu is more apt to lead the point. Yu’s final line included three assists, one rebound, and two steals.
Angeli expanded on Core’s struggles, “Mentally, I think she’s “pretzeled” up as I like to say, just not relaxed on the court or playing very well. I wanted to give her an opportunity to get off the bench and get some pressure off her as far as handling the basketball, and put her in her natural position as shooting guard, and obviously it didn’t help much tonight. I’m trying to do whatever I can to help her get out of it.”
Core finished the game scoreless on nine shot attempts, collecting two rebounds and two assists, while turning the ball over once.
Also making a cameo at the point was Shanell Bellamy, yet another guard who usually comes off the bench, and yet another guard that Angeli says is “not a true point guard.” Bellamy didn’t record any assists, but did sink both three-pointers she attempted, scoring 8 points on 3-5 shooting, grabbing two rebounds and a steal.
Unfortunately for Bellamy, her limited time in action ended in disappointment as she committed a crucial turnover with 21.5 seconds left in the second quarter.
The Beavers only down by two, Bellamy led her teammates down the court on a fast-break. When confronted with two defenders in the paint, she accidentally dribbled the ball off of her feat, effectively quashing any chance of a Beaver comeback, and once again leading to another stunted rally, and another silent gym with seconds left on the game clock. Bellamy would finish with four turnovers in her 16 minutes of play.
“Shanell is similar to Carol. She’s a hard worker. I think she really needs to improve her decision-making. Obviously, that last play towards the end where she dribbled off her foot, they had people back, and she should have dribbled out. We had a play set up that we were gonna run and would have certainly at least given me an opportunity to call time out, but she dribbled off her foot so quick.”
City’s top performer was once again Tiara Brown, who contributed 17 points, 12 rebounds, two assists, and two steals.
Hunter snapped its five game losing streak, while City’s women’s team fell for their fourth straight game. Their record stands at 4-15 with five games left to play in the regular season. Up next is Lehman College (13-6 overall, 7-4 in CUNYAC) on Friday at 5 p.m.
Originally posted on the Campus.