Previewing the Polson/Ronan basketball rivalry

GIRLS BASKETBALL - Ronan Maidens at Polson Lady Pirates on Friday, Jan. 3, 6 p.m.

When it comes to the girls basketball version of the Mission Valley rivalry game between Polson and Ronan, the outcome has disproportionately tended to favor the Polson end of the spectrum.  Prior to the then 4-1 visiting Maidens carving out a 36-32 victory in their rivalry rendezvous on December 2012 last season over the then 0-4 Lady Pirates, one had to trace back to January 2007 to find the last time the Maidens beat Polson 32-31 back when Ronan was still part of the Northwestern A Conference.     District 6B Ronan enters the present season rivalry contest with an even mark of 2-2 this season, while NWA Polson brings in tow an 0-4 record similar to the one in their preceding meeting.  Irrespective of how rivalry rendezvous wrangles tend to unfold prior to the encounter itself, it tends to make little difference whether one team is perceived to be the stronger candidate while another may be at an earlier stage of development.  The dynamics of the longstanding rivalry itself tends to level the playing field.  In an effort to boost the appreciation levels of prospective basketball fans, it was felt that presenting a brief profile of the principle players on each team would not only help boost interest in the game, but also enhance the viewing pleasure of the contest itself.

ANALYSIS OF THE PENDING GIRLS ROUNDBALL RIVALRY RENDEZVOUS

After dominating the rivalry contest for the past quintet of seasons, the shoe of victory ended up being worn on the other foot when the Maidens captured the rivalry contest last season 36-32.    The Lady Pirates might feel inclined to inject a qualifier in that last year’s four point score differential almost certainly would have been much closer had Polson not been playing without their leading scorer and rebounder, but whether the ultimate outcome would have turned out any differently will have to remain a matter of speculation.    

The Ronan Maidens (2-2) enter this current January 2014 contest averaging just over 38 points per game, while the host Polson Lady Pirates (0-4) have been averaging over a dozen less.   Such a discrepancy would be cause for concern to the aspirations of any team that intends to place a competitive game on the court that challenges their opponent for the spoils of victory.   While this particular comparison between points per game productivity initially appears to cast a bleak shadow over the host Lady Pirates being able to field a competitive contest, the discrepancy may appear more pronounced than it may actually play out on the basketball court.   As mentioned earlier on, extrapolating such trends so early in a season tend to make little difference in a rivalry of such magnitude as this Mission Valley mascot mayhem because irrespective of whether one team enters the contest with evident strengths that appear to give one of them an upper hand, the dynamics of any rivalry tend to level the playing field.  In the case of the Lady Pirates, it is to be conceded that their shot attempts from the floor could use a boost in productivity of the higher percentage variety in comparison to the games they have played thus far.  This aspect might be a cause for graver concern if not for the fact that the host purple & gold team have been excelling at splitting the net with their free throws at the charity stripe to such an extent that a quartet of the players are ranked among the TOP 10 of the Northwestern A Conference for their free-throw shooting proficiency while a fifth who has been perfect at the line did not make the list on account of having less attempts than the minimal parameters.   Polson charity stripe shooting performance tends to coincide with what has been periodically observed in their practice sessions where many of them are routinely observed draining shot after shot from the floor through the net.  The disparity between actual game performance in comparison to the team practice regimen observations as well as their charity stripe success during games played thus far strongly suggests that the Lady Pirate players may be merely bogged down in a transitional phase, still in the process of adapting to the faster pace of real-time varsity-level play and stiffer defensive strategies than can be simulated in ordinary practices.    If one did not have the free-throw shooting proficiency or the practice session observations to draw upon, one might be inclined toward drawing less optimistic conclusions.   The question that remains is whether the dynamics of this rivalry wrangle will be enough to overcome whatever seems to be ailing their shooting touch from the floor during games or whether several of the players will continue to shank their shots under sub-par conversion rates until a latter juncture in the schedule.   Another aspect that would have to be conceded is that the host Lady Pirates lack a comparable level of experience when it comes to varsity seasoning as their incoming visitors.  Couple that  consideration with the difficulty level of their early Class A scheduling and all of these factors go far to explain why the Polson offense has been sputtering like an engine with its timing in need of some adjustment to get it calibrated back into synch.  

The current rendition of the Maidens seem to exhibit a more pronounced sprinkle of spunk and splash of gamegirlship than has been often typical of seasons past.   Lending benefit to the Ronan cause is nice blend of maturing skill, mental focus and a healthy dose of confidence that seem to forge the mettle of these Maiden into a team that must be reckoned with.  Polson will have the familiarity of their own gym and a home crowd as perceived advantages, but the crowd aspect will be somewhat neutralized by a swell in attendance from the orange & black fan base coming to watch their team play.    Neither team has a decided height advantage over the other as both appear to match up pretty evenly.    The inclination of this analysis is that the outcome of the game will likely hinge on which team does a better job of executing basic fundamentals like boxing out an opposing player around the basket, shot selectivity of a higher percentage variety and the playing of sound defense.  In order for either team to remain competitive in this one, each will need to propel team shooting percentages out of teen or twenty doldrums into a higher percentage range to hold the other at bay.   

Girls action commences at 6 p.m. on Friday at Linderman Gym.

BOYS BASKETBALL MAYHEM MODES

Ronan Chiefs at Polson Pirates on Friday, Jan. 3, 7:30 pm

Similar to their Maiden counterparts, it had been a while since the Ronan Chiefs had emerged victorious after an encounter with county rival Polson prior to last year‘s squeaker.   More often than not, most of these boys basketball rivalry contests end up being decided in the waning minutes of the final quarter.  A trio of the closest within a half dozen year span have been a Polson 64-62 OT victory January 2008, a Pirate 50-48 regulation triumph January 2009 and a Ronan 47-44 win February 2009.  The most dominating games of recent vintage trace back to the 2006-07 winter campaign when Ronan beat their county rivals both times during the regular season while part of the Northwestern A Conference.   The game with the biggest point spread took place in Polson on 20 February 2010 when the Pirates placed five players in double figures for an 88-50 win. The biggest single player scoring extravaganza within recent memory goes to Ronan when then sophomores Mike Fisher and Nolan Harris combined to drop ten triples on the Pirates in Polson in their 65-55 road triumph.  The Chiefs only placed two players in double figures in that contest, but the numbers were huge.  Harris scored 31 points including 8-12 treys in what had to have been a special scoring dispensation accorded to him on account of it being his birthday.  The other player who scored double figures that night was then senior Cameron Barber with 17 points.

However, most of these Polson vs. Ronan rivalry games tend to be decided by under 10 points like those of the trio mentioned.   Both teams come into the current contest fairly evenly matched with the Chiefs at 1-3 and the Pirates at 0-4.  Where the Chiefs tend to excel is at running that high octane offense which can be a challenge for any team to keep pace with let alone contain.   But the Pirates also have some wheels that can shift through the gears, so this matchup could get very exciting.

PROGNOSTICATIONS ON THE BOYS RIVALRY WRANGLE

With just a handful of  games to draw upon thus far into a young season, emerging trends are still in their nascent infancy, but may yet provide just enough fodder to serve as an appetizer.   Visiting Ronan enters this rivalry rendezvous with a 1-3 record, while host Polson seeks to defend their home court advantage with an 0-4 mark.  Both teams have played inconsistently if not rather poorly in a pair of losses against very difficult opponents and both teams have played fairly well against another pair of more evenly matched opponents.  The Chiefs enter the contest with a 46.5 point per game average, while the homestanding Pirates have been averaging 45.25 points per game.  The differential between the two is less than a single scoring play, which coupled with their won-loss record similarity suggests that this rivalry contest could come down to the wire much like it did last year.  The orange & black visitors would like to show their opponent that their 29-28 win last season was not by fluke, while the host purple & gold defenders would like to deny their opponent any of the breaks they caught at their expense during the course of their last matchup.  The Pirates didn’t do themselves any favors last year when their conversion rate at the charity stripe fell below the 50th percentile.  That equates to a single free throw being enough to tie a one point game, where netting a pair of freebies could have tilted the contest in their favor.   Polson is performing much better this season at the charity stripe, so they no longer appear to be vulnerable in this category like they were last season.  

The Ronan Chiefs will want to execute their game plan on par with how they played in their victory over NWA Libby and their narrow single point loss to 7-B Eureka.  The Polson Pirates are advised to play this rivalry game along the lines of how they matched up against SWA opponents Anaconda and Hamilton, two games they could have emerged from on the other side of the W-L ledger with a few strategic adjustments.  If both teams optimize their capabilities on the court during this rivalry rendezvous, the outcome is likely to hinge on how either team handles a few critical possessions at strategic junctures of the game.  If one team incurs an ill-timed bout of hoop hiccups, the other team is unlikely to cut the other any slack by waiting around for them to sort matters out and get their basketball act back in synch.  Any perceptible chink in the armor will be pressed to the advantage of the other as they seek to put as much distance on the scoreboard between them and their rivals.   Should a player on either side get hot and the other team fail to make the necessary adjustments to cool them off before they get burned too badly, all bets will be off as to how close the margin between scores can be held in check.  The suspicion of this analysis is that the two Mission Valley rivals are going to treat  the crowd to a see-saw barnburner that could hinge on a few critical possessions.

Boys basketball action commences at 7:30 p.m. on Friday at Linderman Gym.

Stat input courtesy of the respective coaching staffs

NWA stats courtesy of Terry Werner culled from nwmta website archives

See the full story on ihigh.com for player profiles on each team: http://www.ihigh.com/nwmta/article_188496.html