February 23, 2005
CAL courtside observations
By TOM WILLIAMS
Sports Columnist
Atlantic City junior Tasha Cannon is really some basketball player.
If there was any doubt, she erased it over the weekend in The Ventnor City Shootout.
Cannon scored 28 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and made six steals in a 56-54 loss to Holy Spirit on
Friday night. Then, on Sunday, she became the first player in the 10 years of The Shootout to register a
triple-double. And she missed a quad-double by one assist with a stat line that read 16 points, 15
rebounds, 10 steals and nine assists in a 70-44 win over Brooklyn’s Bishop Kearney.
When you consider the players who have played in The Shootout, Cannon becoming the first with a
triple-double becomes even more impressive. Former UConn stars Sue Bird (Christ The King) and Asjha
Jones (Piscataway) never did it. Neither did Tennessee stars Kristen Clement (Cardinal O’Hara) or Nikki
Anisoke (St. Peter’s). It was never done by Wildwood’s Monica Johnson, Holy Spirit’s Jen Daniels,
Sterling’s Jessica Copskey or Sacred Heart’s Ikea Witt.
Cannon, who entered this week just nine points away from 1,000 for her career, is the complete player.
She has the shooting skills but also sees the court as well as any point guard. She is a strong rebounder
and you can see her defensive intensity in her eyes.
It will be interesting to see what she accomplishes the rest of this year and all of next.
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Boys basketball is pretty much a toss-up as we enter the final week of the regular season.
Though Atlantic City has clinched its conference, Wednesday night’s St. Augustine-Holy Spirit contest in
Absecon will determine which team will represent the National Conference.
St. Augustine has lost four games in February – to St. Patrick’s, Middle Township, Woodrow Wilson, Hun
School and Haddonfield. That is rare for a program that usually peaks in late February and early March.
Camden lost its best player for the season, Atlantic City suffered a high-scoring loss to Schalick and
Camden Catholic has worked its way back to the top after early losses.
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Wildwood Catholic played a great game against a very tough Trenton Central on Monday afternoon in The
Shootout, losing by a single point. The Crusaders forced the fast-paced Tornadoes to play a half-court
game and stayed with them for 32 minutes. It was a great game to get ready for the challenges ahead.
Mainland suffered two difficult losses, to Sacred Heart in overtime and to St. Mary’s of Annapolis MD by
three points. The Mustangs went straight from the St. Mary’s loss into an important game with
Hammonton that would decide the division championship.
Sacred Heart split two overtime games during the weekend, losing a double-overtime battle with former rival
Wildwood. The series between the two teams has run into numerous obstacles. One game was snowed
out, another rained out (the Sacred Heart roof leaked), a third was delayed when officials failed to arrive.
And a fourth was not played when Sacred Heart officials felt an advertisement for the game in Wildwood,
intended to be humorous, put Russian Vika Sholokhova of Sacred Heart in a bad situation.
But Sunday’s game was worth the wait. It was filled with clutch three-pointers and key foul shooting.
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