Winslow Township Girls’ Basketball Looking for Another Strong Season
Winslow Township’s girls’ basketball team has been under the radar, but certainly no stranger to winning recently. Under fourth-year coach Dan McGettigan, the Eagles have been a major threat in the Olympic Conference and this year is no different.
In his first season, the Eagles finished tied for second in the Olympic Patriot with Timber Creek, behind champion Shawnee. Both Shawnee and Timber Creek were Top-five South Jersey teams that season.
Winslow Township then won the division title the next two years and will be difficult to unseat this year.
In addition to a veteran cast, the Eagles were bolstered by the addition of senior Brittany Garner, considered one of the top centers in South Jersey.
Garner is a transfer from Camden Catholic.
“We’re still figuring out how to get her the ball,” McGettigan said. “It’s also the toughest thing I have ever coached, how to get a player the ball in the post.”
It’s tougher when other teams are doing all they can to take that option away.
That is what happened in a 39-32 loss to a Haddon Township team that opened the season winning its first six games.
Township stacked the lane, daring Winslow Township to shoot from the outside.
As it turns out, the defenses on both teams ruled, as the final score indicated.
Still, despite the defensive attention, Garner ended with 19 points.
McGettigan says that Garner is surely drawing Division I attention. As an example, Tulsa was at a recent Winslow Township game to see Garner.
In the first five games, Garner was averaging 16 points per game. She had appeared in four, missing an early loss against Camden Catholic.
The two losses, to Camden Catholic and Haddon Township were to potential Top 10 teams. Winslow Township should benefit from these difficult non-division games.
The Eagles also have one of the more exciting players in South Jersey in Mikayla Cohen, a high-flying 5-foot-11, senior.
“She is doing very well, is very athletic and can actually touch the rim,” McGettigan said. “She plays so hard and often takes rebounds away from our players because she jumps over everybody.”
In their last game of 2017, Winslow Township had its best showing of the young season, beating previously unbeaten Haddonfield, 49-40. Garner had 18 while Adriyana Jennings, a 5-8 sophomore, added 14 points.
The Eagles will have a much better handle where they stand by the middle of January. Between now and then, Winslow Township will play six of its next seven games against Olympic Conference teams, including a stretch of three straight against Cherokee, Lenape and Shawnee.
This type of schedule will get the Eagles ready for the South Jersey Group 3 tournament, where Winslow Township is expected to be a factor.
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Author: Marc Narducci
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