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LOWER GWYNEDD – Call it sweet redemption. Call it anything you like, but by any name, Natasha Matthews’ 18-point, 14-rebound performance against Wissahickon was something special.Not only because it propelled the Eagles (8-3) to an important 41-32 win over their neighboring rivals in a battle for second place in the SOL American Conference standings, but also because it came on the heels of a three-point effort by Matthews in the initial meeting between the two teams that was won by the Trojans.
“I knew I had to play hard if we wanted to win,” Matthews said. “I couldn’t come out the same way I did the last time we played them because I couldn’t finish a layup.”
Matthews bore absolutely no resemblance to the player who connected on just one shot from the floor the first time around. In Tuesday’s rematch, the junior center owned the paint. She repeatedly came out of the pack with the basketball on both ends of the court, and she was the ultimate finisher on the offensive end.
“I’m going up stronger and listening to my coaches,” she said.
Not far away, coach Ashlee Harrison – herself a former Trojan star and an assistant coach at Wissahickon for four years – beamed.
“We have been on her for the past two weeks,” the Eagles’ rookie coach said of Matthews. “We need her. If she doesn’t touch the ball every time down the floor, it’s a problem.
“I guess it was just a matter of getting her confidence up. We’re that much better when Tasha touches the ball inside. I’m so proud. This is probably the best she has played. I hope this is the confidence boost she needed.”
On the other side of the court, coach Jerry Hartman didn’t have to look very far to figure out what went wrong.
One glance at his team’s shot chart told the story. 
In the third quarter, the Trojans took 13 shots and made just two. Things didn’t improve in a fourth quarter that saw them connect on just three of 18 shots. Quick math will show that the Trojans shot a dismal 16 percent from the floor in the second half.
That’s not going to win very many basketball games, and it’s certainly not going to erase an 11-point halftime deficit.
“We’re not shooting the ball very well,” Hartman said. “When we don’t shoot the ball well, we’re not going to be successful.”
The last time the two teams met the Eagles – after jumping out to a 5-0 mark – were in the midst of a stretch that saw them lose five of six games. Tuesday’s win was their fifth in a row as they have recuperated quite nicely from that difficult stretch.
“This is the team that should have been winning this whole time,” Norristown’s Netta Wise said. “This was the team that was here at the beginning of the year but fell off when we stopped playing hard. We had to come back playing harder.”
No one played harder than Wise, the lightening quick guard who set the tone for the Eagles’ high octane performance, and with the Eagles clinging to a two-point lead midway through the second quarter, it was a basket by Wise (nine points) after a drive to the hole that triggered an 8-0 Eagle run.
After a Trojan miss, Cashae Hinton converted a fast break basket, prompting a Trojan timeout.
It didn’t help.
Moments later, Wise scored another fast break basket after a Wissahickon miss, giving the Eagles a 23-15 lead, and yet another Trojan miss set the stage for Hinton finding Brittney Rose for a pretty fast break bucket.
According to Wise, the difference between this meeting between the two teams and the last was obvious.
“Our defense,” she said. “We tried to stay on them, get them frustrated and pressure the ball.”
Anne Bracaglia – whose eight first-quarter points allowed the Trojans to stay within one of their visitors (10-9) – buried one-of-two from the foul line, and then Rose (nine rebounds, three blocked shots) found Matthews on the opposite side of the basket for an easy deuce, sending the Eagles into halftime with a 27-16 lead.
“I don’t think we got the ball inside enough in the first half,” Hartman said. “We settled too much for long shots, and when you take long shots, you get long rebounds, and against a quick team like that, that’s a recipe for disaster.
“I just didn’t think we did a good enough job on offense trying to get the ball inside. Our strong suit is to get the ball inside. I don’t think Rachel (Schaible) and Colleen (Hinde) saw the ball enough.”
The duo combined for 27 points in the initial meeting but had just 12 points combined in Tuesday’s rematch. It wasn’t enough to offset the dominating effort of Matthews in the paint and the resulting speedy transition and easy baskets.
“That’s how we play – look for the guard to run our offense,” Matthews said. “It was a lot of fun.”
The Eagles opened the third quarter the same way they ended the second – with a fast break bucket. This time Hinton found Wise for the easy deuce. After the two teams exchanged turnovers, Wise found Merecedes Harris for a basket as everyone was getting into the act.
After another Trojan timeout, the Eagles’ defense once again came up big, and this time it was Matthews blocking a shot that was tracked down by Wise. At the other end of the court, Matthews cut to the basket for a hoop that put the Eagles on top 33-16.
Bracaglia found Schaible (10 points) rolling to the hole for an easy bucket, but it was too late. The Trojans would get no closer than nine the rest of the way.
An interesting stat in Tuesday’s game was the fact that the Eagles were credited with 11 blocked shots as they repeatedly got a piece of the ball. Matthews and Rose each had three blocks to lead the way.
But Harrison wasn’t as impressed by the blocks as she was by the performance of one of her players.
“Our key tonight was Netta (Wise) on Casey (Bill),” the Eagles’ coach said of the Trojans’ point guard. “Netta is by far our best defensive player.”
On this night, the Eagles had everything going their way – their transition game, their inside game and their defensive game. The result was a huge win as the regular season comes down the home stretch.
NORRISTOWN 41, WISSAHICKON 32
Norristown (41) – Cashae Hinton 2 1-2 5, Netta Wise 4 1-3 9, Natasha Matthews 6 6-8 18, Brittney Rose 1 0-0 2, Mercedes Harris 3 1-1 7, Nicole Graham 0 0-0 0, Devin Blake 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 9-15 41.
Wissahickon (32) – Kristy Ragbir 1 1-2 3, Anne Bracaglia 4 3-5 13, Rachel Schaible 4 2-2 10, Casey Bill 0 0-0 0, Colleen Hinde 1 0-0 2, Hilary Hunter 1 0-0 2, Natalie Draham 1 0-0 2. Totals 12 6-9 32.
Norristown 10 17 7 7-41
Wissahickon 9 7 5 11-32
Three-point goals: Bracaglia 2.
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