Caribou Chatter
Doug Flanagan
Cashmere girls pushing the pace
By Doug Flanagan
Jan. 21, 2011
Over the past couple of years, the Cashmere High School girls basketball team ran an offense that focused on working the ball inside to its two star post players, Emily Abbott and Rachel Lippert.
Since those two players have graduated and moved on to the college ranks, head coach Chris Cloakey and the Bulldogs knew at the beginning of this season that they'd have to fundamentally alter their offensive identity and become more of an up-tempo team in order to succeed. It was a natural transition for Cloakey to make because his squad would be filled with smaller, quicker players than it had been in the past.
Most high school basketball players, if pressed, would probably admit that they prefer to play more of a 'run-n-gun' style of play rather than focusing on plodding, half-court sets. Cloakey prefers the up-tempo style as well.
"I definitely like it better," he said. "We didn't do it as much last year because we wanted to go to our strengths. But because we are so athletic, I can see this being our style of play for the next few years at least with the kids that we have coming up."
The changes that Cashmere has made have had a positive impact, to say the least. After the first half of Caribou Trail League play, Cashmere sports a 4-1 record (11-3 overall), with its only loss coming to first-place Okanogan.
Cashmere appears to be well on its way to obtaining a postseason berth, but Cloakey isn't sure if his team has met his preseason expectations or not.
"That's a great question," he said. "We have a lot of youth, and we lost quite a bit from last year. We're (implementing) some all new stuff, and we played a lot over the summer, and the girls are working hard. But I'm not sure about our expectations after 14 games. We're not satisfied, that's for sure. We had a pretty good start, but there's lot of things that we want to get better at."
Cashmere is thriving because it's getting a high level of play from its core group of guards - Angela Knishka, Stephanie O'Bryan, Gaby Gonzalez and Lauren Johnson. This year's Bulldogs team doesn't have any height to speak of - their roster doesn't feature a player over 5-foot-8. But they're succeeding because their guards are excelling at penetrating the lane, getting to the foul line, making good decisions and shooting with accuracy.
And they love to get out in the open floor and run. Cloakey knows that transition offense comes from a good defense.
"Now we're more of a pressure and pressing team, which allows us to run," he said. "The three players who started outside last year (with Abbott and Lippert) are still starting now. The difference is now we have the speed everywhere. That allows us to put pressure on the other team. Before, we would dare teams to drive down the middle and run into our big defenders."
No Bulldog is playing at a higher level than Gonzalez. She's been unquestionably the team's best player so far this season, and she didn't waste any time in emerging as an offensive force - she scored 36 points in the team's first game of the season against Cascade. She's currently averaging about 17 points per game.
"She's started for us since her freshman year, and last year she took a big step up in scoring and her assist-to-turnover ratio. This year, she made another big leap," Cloakey said. "She can definitely go on a (scoring) streak and still make good passes to other people, and she's turned up her effort defensively in the full court."
Despite the fact that she's only 5-1, Gonzalez has a knack for using her quickness and agility - attributes she no doubt honed as a star player for Cashmere's soccer team - to get to the basket.
She's also emerging as a highly accurate shooter; in the team's 63-57 loss to undefeated, state-ranked LaSalle last week, she made 12 of her 13 shots from the field on her way to 29 points.
"She's gotten better at taking the ball to the basket and finishing," Cloakey said. "That's part of why her field goal percentage is so good is that she's got the ability to drive the ball to the hoop. But against LaSalle, she started pulling up and hitting shots from 10 feet out, and she hit four 3-pointers. She can do it inside and outside. Teams don't think that a 5-1 girl can get to the basket that often, but she's not only fast, but she's quick, and she can develop moves that create more openings."
The team's change in offensive philosophy has helped Gonzales as well, Cloakey said.
"She's fun to watch," he said. "Part of what's made her successful this year is that defenses are spread out to play us, and we have other people who can shoot the 3, and they can't collapse on her when she drives. If everybody collapses on her, she'll kick it out to Knishka or Johnson and they'll hit a 3. Good perimeter shooting really helps to open things up."
Knishka is just a sophomore, but averaged 8.5 points per game last season as a freshman and is playing at a high level this season after suffering a knee injury at the end of last season.
O'Bryan has been the team's starting point guard for the past three season and provides a steady presence, and Johnson, a freshman, has made an immediate impact with her outside shooting.
"I'll play 10, 11 kids in games, and everybody's stepped up and competed," Cloakey said. "Johnson has stepped in as a freshman. Knishka is recovering from her injury and is just now starting to come on and get back to the form she was at last year. She's stepped up and hit some big shots for us. She can shoot from the outside and drive to get to the basket. It's exciting to see from a sophomore. O'Bryan proves good leadership and a good assist-to-turnover ratio. From freshmen to seniors, everybody has been playing together and rooting each other on and working hard in practice to get better in games."
The team's one true post player, Kaylee Caudill, has suffered a trying campaign so far. In the team's game against Omak on Jan. 14, she fractured her nose in the first half. As she was undergoing treatment for the fracture, doctors discovered that she had been suffering from pneumonia.
Cloakey said he hopes to have Caudill back at practice on Monday, with the hope of having her for next Saturday's game at Okanogan.
Despite the fact that it appears as though the CTL race will come down to Okanogan and Cashmere, Cloakey is reluctant to proclaim that his team has anything secured just yet or to dismiss any team's chances.
"We know (Okanogan) will be there. We have to make sure we're there with them," he said. "We still play Cascade. We played them in the first game of the year, a nonleague game. We played them again and they made up about 15 points on us. If they do that again, they'll beat us by 10. We worry about everybody. Todd (Fraker) is a good coach and he has a lot of good players. People might talk about us, but they're there also. Chelan, you never know. They're there every year, so it's hard to believe they're going to stay where they are. We have to go up to Omak and play. I certainly don't see it as just Okanogan and us."
The team's main weakness is rebounding and interior defense. But since the Bulldogs don't have much height, Cloakey knows that there may be only so much that they can do to improve in those areas.
But judging from their loss to LaSalle, he certainly knows that his team has some control over another one of its weaknesses.
"Against LaSalle, we turned the ball over too many times," he said. "LaSalle runs one of the best press defenses in the state. Their coach told me, 'Chris, teams don't get lay-ins against us, and that game was a lay-in drill for you guys. We had to slow it down to beat you.' Our kids got out and ran, but when we played fast, we turned the ball over, and when we slowed it down in the second half, we turned the ball over. We need to learn from that and take care of the ball and give ourselves more possessions.
"We turned the ball over 31 times in that game. If we had turned it over 23 times - 23 is still double what our goal is for every game - we would have given ourselves eight more possessions, and applying those eight possessions with our shooting percentage from that game, we would have beat LaSalle, which is something that nobody has done this year.
"We have to give ourselves the opportunity to shoot the ball, because we're pretty successful at it. If we hand the ball back to our opponent, that's not going to work real well. We've had games where we've had more steals than turnovers. When you do that, you're going to usually be successful."
