LOOKING UP: Princeton High girls’ basketball player Anna Winters heads to the hoop in a recent game. Senior star Winters scored a season-high 26 points to help PHS defeat North Brunswick 73-20 on December 23. Over the weekend in the MCCC Holiday Showcase at Mercer County Community College, the Tigers fell 69-32 to Camden Catholic on Saturday and 59-46 to Thrive Charter a day later. PHS, now 3-3, hosts Hamilton West on January 3 and Lawrence on January 6. (Photo by Frank Jacobs III)
By Bill Alden
Although the Princeton High girls’ basketball team got routed last week by Rutgers Prep to suffer its first loss of the season, Anna Winters and her teammates weren’t discouraged as they hosted North Brunswick a day later.
“We knew Rutgers Prep was going to be a challenge,” said Winters, who scored 10 points in the 72-26 loss to the Argonauts. “It was awesome playing them and watching them.”
Getting off to an awesome start against North Brunswick, the Tigers jumped out to a 16-1 lead and were up 40-3 at halftime on the way to a 73-20 win.
“I think we worked well together as a team today,” said Winters. “We passed the ball around.”
Winters shot the ball well, draining three 3-pointers in the first quarter to get in a rhythm.
“I don’t really know what happened, “I haven’t been shooting that great” said Winters, who ended up with a season-high 26 points in the win. “My percentage has not been that good. Today I was just feeling good.”
In addition to her shooting, Winters is feeling good about her playmaking as she dished out six assists against North Brunswick.
“I love passing in general, but I have been playing AAU and not being the main person on that team you have to figure out a way to get around that,” said Winters. “I know how to pass, I am glad I can put that to use for this team.”
Over the years, Winters has found classmate Katie Sharkey with a lot of those passes.
“We play for the Lady Hawks AAU team in the fall and spring,” said Winters. “We have been playing together since sixth grade.”
With PHS playing for new coach Mary Pat Lelinski, the program’s third head coach in the last three seasons, Winters and her teammates are getting in synch with a different system.
“I think we have been playing well, we have been a little scrappy in the first few games,” said Winters. “We are still getting adjusted, it is a new coach. It is all different. Every coach that we have had has been completely different in their own way. Coach knows basketball, I think she is leading our team in a good direction.”
The team’s five seniors are looking to take the Tigers in a new direction.
“We definitely want to put something on that empty banner in our gym,” said Winters. “We have been saying that since freshman year. This year we are really set on that and we really think we can do it this year.”
PHS head coach Lelinski liked the way her team set the tone early against North Brunswick.
“It was nice to come back and just try to turn the table,” said Lelinski. “We knew that we had to come out hard and make a statement and then from there we could figure out what we were going to do. That is why we came out in the press and man-to-man defense before we stepped back.”
As the Tigers pulled away to the win, Lelinski was able to clear her bench and eight players scored points.
“It really was a great game for everybody,” said Lelinski. “I told them before the game that this team is going to be physical, every team has its talents. This is going to be a pivotal game in our season. I was happy that it did go that way and not the other way.”
The one-two punch of Winters and Sharkey clicked as they combined for 44 points. Sharkey hit four 3-pointers to end up with 18 points to complement the 26 points tallied by Winters.
Lelinski credited Winters and Sharkey with contributing in other ways as they have worked to find their shooting stroke.
“Anna’s defense right now is good, that was on and off last year,” said Lelinski of Winters, who had six steals in the win over North Brunswick. “She has it all going on this year. I am very happy with that. She was struggling with her shooting. She was not hitting them percentage-wise that she wanted. Katie has been struggling a little bit with the three so this was a good get-right game for her. It was nice to see her hitting that. She has been playing as an all-around contributor, getting a lot of rebounds and playing really good defense.”
Over the weekend in the MCCC Holiday Showcase at Mercer County Community College, the Tigers fell 69-32 to Camden Catholic on Saturday and 59-46 to Thrive Charter a day later. PHS, now 3-3, will host Hamilton West on January 3 and Lawrence on January 6 as it gets into the thick of its Colonial Valley Conference (CVC) schedule.
In Lelinski’s view, facing tough teams in December should help steel the Tigers as they look to put some titles on their banner in the PHS gym.
“Our goal is to win the division in the CVC and see where we go with that,” said Lelinski. “We are going to play teams that we put on the schedule on purpose to challenge us so it is not the win, loss record. It is a step forward, it is a step back and we will see where we go. I think this weekend will be a good challenge for us.”
Winters, for her part, believes that the Tigers can develop into a formidable team.
“I think we are going to have to just keep playing as a team,” said Winters. “We are going to have to move the ball, be tough, and work together.”