Decided on Saratoga for Sunday, so I had my pick of long drives for Saturday. Rochester, Worcester (MA), New London (CT), Burlington (VT), or the Saranac Lake region. After weighing options - and where I thought I had the best chance of finding a couple people slightly closer to home - the North Country won out. This won't be a long recap, as there wasn't much I cared for, but I did talk to a couple that stood out.
Erin Langworthy (Warrensburg HS/Northern Lites; 2016) - Known as a scorer first that dominates the ball in the winter & really is the ONLY option for her Class D Warrensburg squad, she showed some things beyond her reputation. First, she's known as a shooter. Perimeter J wasn't falling in Game 1 - so she did a good job moving without the ball, got herself some easy ones, got to the rack & the line, and did all the other things well (on & off-ball D, rebounding, smart play, making the extra pass). The shot came back for the nightcap though, as she hit 3 straight from deep to start the 2nd half and help push her team ahead of Sun Youth from north of the border. Already the most prolific scorer Warrensburg has ever seen (at 1,300 point range, just surpassing her 1,200 point scoring mother), she showed me she can fill it up against non-Adirondack League competition.
Emma Carter (Mount Abraham Union (VT)/Valley Magic; 2018) - She's a guard with serious height. Or she's a 4 with serious guard skills. I'd lean toward the first - but whatever way you look at it, she can play and defend every position on the court with an uncommon combo of height/length, strength, and quickness for size. She can hit the perimeter J but loved the mid-range game in the game I caught. Not afraid to use her size & take smaller guards straight to the blocks. Smart rebounder - wasn't always running through a brick wall for the ball because she got to the rebounding area early. Handle needs some work but she's capable of it. Had to play a lot of PG against man-to-man Saranac press because she was the only one who could handle it consistently, but probably is best as a secondary ballhandler right now... but just a rising sophomore. Already the leading scorer for her varsity team that's been to the Vermont Division II finals 3 of last 4 years & won 2 of them... super bright future.
Those were the only two I talked to, but Bri McKinney (Hudson Falls HS/Northern Lites; 2016) probably earned herself another look. Watched them once in regular season - her & rest of Tiger team had an awful go of it against Glens Falls. The lefty guard really showed some signs in the first game, hitting 4 second half threes (2 of them deeeeep) in what was eventually a 1 point win. Pretty hard-nosed player who is deceptively strong and not afraid of physicality. Probably had 20-25 in the aforementioned win. Struggled a bit in the other game, but they didn't skip a beat with Langworthy getting hot. I'll find a way to check them out again.
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