SHELBY — Shelby entered this season with sky-high expectations and a young, yet experienced roster. Monday night showed a Tiger team that’s ready to meet those expectations head-on, as they dominated the second and third quarters of a 46-26 season-opening win over Whitehall.
Maybe the best sign for Shelby - and the scariest for opponents - was sophomore Jayna Burmeister showing off her three-point stroke. Burmeister, already an all-conference player last year, drilled six treys on her way to a game-high 28 points.
“If she can hit threes on the outside, she can dribble around pretty much anyone,” Shelby coach Sarah Wolting said. “Against man-to-man, she comes up and hits big jumpers, or is always ready for her shot, to be able to work the inside or post up. It’s just hard to find someone who can guard her, because she’s a decent-sized girl that can hit the outside shot and post up and jump well. She’s worked a lot in the offseason, and it showed tonight.”
The Tigers opened the game attacking Whitehall in the press, just as they did a season ago when the teams played each other in their first game. This time, Whitehall was able to ward it off for the most part, and the game remained close into the second quarter.
That’s when Burmeister turned on her long-distance shooting, hitting two three-pointers in the second. Annabelle Stark knocked one down too, and the Tigers extended a three-point lead out to 10 by halftime, 24-14.
Burmeister said adding a consistent three-point shot to her game - and her teammates’ games as well - helps make the Tigers even more difficult to stop.
“If you hit a shot fake, then that drive is going to be there, or a shot fake and then a pass into our big. It just opens everything up,” Burmeister said.
The added threat makes life easier for Burmeister, as well as Stark and post player Kylie Brown, Wolting said. Defenses are forced to allow more space, which gives scorers more room to maneuver.
“We’ve got to be able to make some outside shots to open things up for Jayna or Annie or Kylie inside, otherwise they’re going to just get beat up in there,” Wolting said. “It’s huge. That’s one thing that we said we needed to focus on last year, is being more of a threat on the outside.”
Burmeister proceeded to make three more treys in the third quarter, but just as importantly, Shelby called off the press after halftime, noting that Whitehall was handling it fairly well, and went to an aggressive man-to-man defense in the half-court. The change paid immediate dividends, as Shelby recorded several turnovers that led to easy buckets on the other end. The Tigers built out a substantial lead and never looked back.
“We talked a little bit about what they were doing on offense (at halftime),” Wolting said. “Sometimes as a young team, they don’t always notice what (the opponents) are doing offensively. We made some adjustments in our half-court man-to-man that really helped. We just pointed out a few things that were happening. Our communication was a little bit better in the second half as well.”
After enjoying an outstanding first year together and bringing back every major contributor this year, Shelby has no doubt heard a lot of chatter about how good it’s likely to be this year. However, Wolting said, and Monday’s result showed, that the team is able to deal with it because despite the players’ young ages, they show maturity on the court. Wolting attributes that in part to how many players (four of them) have coaches for parents; one of those, of course, is Wolting’s own daughter Jordan.
“It’s a group that doesn’t show a ton of emotion anyway,” Wolting said. “They hear (the talk), and they like it. They like that pressure. They’ve played long enough and beaten teams in middle school, so that pressure’s kind of been on, especially, the sophomore group anyway. I think they’re up for the challenge.”
Burmeister, in turn, credited Shelby’s coaches for helping keep the focus on the work.
“I feel like all of our coaches do a good job of letting us find our own ways and playing our game,” Burmeister said. “I feel like we do an amazing job of blocking out everybody else and playing how we want to play.”
With the Whitehall win in hand, focus turned to a massive clash against Hart, scheduled for Thursday. The game should serve as an excellent measuring stick for whether the rival Pirates’ recent reign over the West Michigan Conference Rivers will continue, or if it is now Shelby’s time.
“We are so excited, but we know it’s going to be tough,” Burmeister said. “We know they’re going to give us everything that they’ve got, so we’re ready for that. We’re prepared.”
