PARK RIDGE — This is the first time in his 10 seasons as the Maine South girls basketball head coach that Mark Smith hasn’t felt confident using man-to-man as his primary defense.
Smith said the Hawks aren’t tall enough or fast enough to rely on man this season. Instead, they’ve been playing almost exclusively a 2-3 matchup zone.
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“It’s definitely something that is rare for us,” he said. “Zone is something we never really do. But for us to beat the best teams, we have to play zone.”
Maine South’s zone was working well in the first half Friday against Central Suburban South foe New Trier, which is one of the top teams in the state. Although the Hawks eventually suffered a 58-42 defeat, they were in control in the first two quarters.
The Hawks held New Trier junior Jeannie Boehm, a 6-3 center, to zero field goals and four points in the first half and Maine South went into intermission ahead 22-21. Boehm’s first basket didn’t come until the 3:51 mark of the third quarter.
“She’s the player we have to shut down, and I think we did a good job of that, at least in the first half,” said junior forward Julia Spuria, who at 5-8 plays in the middle of the zone. “Our zone generally has been good this season, and we definitely are a lot farther along than we were last year.”
Boehm finished with 16 points.
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Spuria said the key to a good zone is communication.
“You have to talk, you have to know where everybody is,” she said. “The next step for us is to continue communicating better, knowing where the teammate next to you is going to be.”
At 5-10, senior forwards Nina Anderson and Elizabeth Skoronski are the tallest players in the starting lineup. Anderson said she likes playing man-to-man defense, but she’s embracing the zone.
“We’ve run it well at times, and when we do that, we’ve been successful,” Anderson said. “We showed that in the first half [against New Trier].”
Smith is adjusting to life as a coach of the zone. He said the players are, too.
“It was hard at first because in the summer leagues they kind of force you to play man, so we were a little behind coming into the season,” said Smith, whose team came into the week 5-5 and 1-2 in conference play. “We blew a lot of coverages early, but we’ve gotten a lot better.”