Como pulls away from Cromwell in Game of the Week

<p>It wasn’t the end of the regular season, but it was close. And, it would have been a fitting close—two teams with state tournament type ability and potential, both playing at or near the top of their game. The result was a 69-68 Cromwell lead at 5:45, but then a 10-2 Como Park rally triggered by a full court trapping defense, forcing 4 Cromwell turnovers in 5 possessions. Suddenly it was 78-71 at 4:00, and Cromwell never got closer than 4. The final was 82-74.</p> <p>Como led 11 times in the game, Cromwell led 8 times, and there were 7 ties. That last lead change came on two FT by Como’s 5-11 sophomore post Elaina Jones, which represented her 3rd of 7 scores (14 points) in 5:30 down the stretch. 2 buckets came on pick ‘n roll plays with 5-0 junior guard Autumn Tucker, one came off the offensive glass, one came off the aforementioned defensive pressure, one came in transition, and 2 came on cuts, catches and conversions. And, on top of all of that, she threw an assist pass to Mikayla Van Nett in the left corner after an O-board for another Como bucket. It was 63-62 when Jones got revved up. It was 80-74 after her final score.</p> <p>Jones finished with 32 points, 17 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal and 2 turnovers. Meanwhile, guards Tucker and Van Nett combined for 36 points, hitting 9-of-22 3-point shots. Tucker hit 4-for-4 from long range in the 1st half.</p> <p>And, yet, Cromwell stayed close down to the final minutes as guards Chelsea Swatek, a senior, and Taya Hakamaki, a “saavy” freshman, according to coach Jeff Gronner, combined for 43 points. They hit 8-of-15 3s—Hakamaki 5-of-8 in the 1st half, and Swatek 3-of-5 in the 2nd.</p> <p>In addition to the 5 big scorers already named, Cromwell also had Teana Hakamaki with 14 and Shailey Hakamaki with 13. Along with Jones 17 rebounds, Cromwell’s Bailey Gronner also had 11. Shailey also had 8 assists, while Tucker had 6 assists for Como.</p> <p>Both teams played at a very fast pace, and did so with minimal help from the 2 benches. Both moved the ball and moved without the ball like a training film. Each team had 16 assists, according to my unofficial stats, assisting on 32-of-58 buckets between them. “It’s all about being in shape,” Como coach Alexis Gray-Lawson said afterward. “We knew that we don’t have a long bench. We’ve had a couple of players who went down, so they’ve got to play long minutes.”</p> <p>Coach Gronner echoed that. “We don’t have a lot of bench, so we condition and we practice to be able to do that. In the past, I’ve had a long bench. This year we don’t have that, so it’s just something to deal with. (After) a full season of doing that, I think our girls for the most part have adapted to that.”</p> <p>The difference was Como had just 8 turnovers despite the pace, while Cromwell had 22, 6 of them in that critical 3 minutes near the end of the game. Como had 17 offensive boards, Cromwell 12, but Cromwell excelled at kicking the O-board out to the 3 point shooters and so they outscored Como on 2nd chancers. Neither team had much luck getting a body on anybody on the defensive boards, and neither team got out on the 3-point shooters very well on defense, but that was because of #1 rapid ball movement and #2 each team always had 2 to 3 girls parked on the arc who would take and could make the 3.</p> <p>“A lot of our offense is shooting the 3,” coach Gray-Lawson said, “and we’re a good 3-point shooting team. We have one who’s 1st in the state and another who’s 5th. So when you have that kind of shooting, you can knock those down.”</p> <p>Again, coach Gronner echoed that. “We live and die by the 3 because I have good shooters. Overall, it’s a good experience coming down here, we just have to find a way to finish games.”</p> <p>In a nutshell—neither of these teams is a lock to get to the state tournament. There are challengers awaiting both. But anybody in their sections that wants to do so is going to have to go through them to get there.</p>