Freshmen Anna, Babette, Erica, Janelle, Juanita, Lauren and Sam make Varsity

Congratulations to the seven Sirens who made Varsity this year as freshmen. We hope the remaining girls will make varsity in 2011 as sophomores!

Ana Warfield and Lauren are playing with Damascus, Janelle Brown is with Magruder, Juanita and Babette are at Quince Orchard and Sam Lee is at Walter Johnson with coach Tori Moten.

Yasmine Reed is playing JV at Gaithersburg along with Christine Mabry and Kaitlyn De Hoff.

Jasmine Chang is playing JV at QO and Bella Vagnoni is also playing JV at St. Johns, along with former Pythons Kelly Markham, Raley Hinton and Christine Morin.

Also, Adjowa Pinkra is playing with Janel Brown at Magruder and Cameron Kelso is playing for Holton Arms (Varsity).

Follow the Sirens in their High School Games:

Anna Warfield	Damascus HS
Babette Sanmartin	Quince Orchard HS
Erica Adarkwa	Blair HS
Janelle Brown	Magruder HS
Juanita Craig	Quince Orchard HS
Lauren Green	Damascus
Sam Lee	Walter Johnson HS

Other players: Cameron Kelso and Adjowa Pinkrah .

Sirens at Sandburg Middle School, Alexandria, VA on May 2nd 2010.
Back Row (L-R): Nadine Reed, Anna Warfield, Babette Sanmartin, Janel Brown and Mauricio Sanmartin
Front Row: Katy Cunha, Erica Adarkwa, Yasmine Reed and Danielle Spencer. On the Floor: Lauren Green.

Sirens grab Bronze Medal at PVAAU's 13U DQT

Results: vs Matrix/Connole 46-33 (W) vs Lady Lakers 47-54 (L) vs Cardinal/King 57-46 (W) vs Cardinal/Burdette 22-70 (W) vs Matrix/Paul 41-67 (L) vs MD United Lady Ballers 51-46 (W) Summary: Wins: 4 Loses: 2 Points in Favor: 312 (52 ppg) Points against: 268 (45 ppg)

Mt Vernon, Virginia, May 3rd, 2010. The Maryland Sirens finished the 2010 Potomac Valley District qualifier beating the reigning Division II National Champion (MD United Lady Ballers) by a score of 51-46, grabbing the bronze medal and an invite to the Nationals in Kings Island, Ohio in July. The Sirens had a 4-2 record over the two-weekend tournament, with victories over Matrix/Connole, Cardinal/King, Cardinal/Burdette and the Lady Ballers, while losing to the eventual 2010 champion (Lady Lakers) and the Matrix team coached by Mike Paul. In the game for the bronze medal on Sunday morning, all the girls played very well, taking care of the ball and playing great defense, against an experienced and physical team. Anna Warfield was pretty accurate from mid-range and driving strong to the basket, leading the team with 13 points. Erica Adarkwa, had a very good game, driving aggressively to the basket and scoring 11 points, followed by Lauren with 9 (including a three pointer) and Katy with 6. Yasmine, Babette and Janel added 2 each. As one of the parents said after the game "it was a fun game to watch" with the Sirens compensating their lack of size with good ball handling, passing and outside shooting. In the game on Saturday night, the Sirens lost to the Matrix by a huge margin (67-41) after scoring the highest number of points (70) in all the 13U bracket (including Div I and a Division II). The girls were tired after playing in the morning against the Virginia Cardinal and enjoying a nice meal at Ruby Tuesday on Route 1. In a very hot gym, the Matrix had a deep bench (12 players) with pretty skilful players, while the Sirens had only 8 players in the roster. The Matrix had an outstanding game, making almost all their shots, perforating the Sirens' defense and advancing to the championship game to face the MD Lady Lakers. The Lady Lakers, who played Div I in 2009, would take the gold beating the Matrix 40-32. Against the Matrix, Babette had 13 points (5 of 9 from the FT), followed by seven from Lauren (1/3 FTs), six from Anna, four from Yasmine (2/4 FTs), Janel (2/2 FTs) and Erica (2/4 FTs), three from Danielle (1/3 FTs) On Saturday morning, the Sirens secured their ticket to the semifinals beating the Virginia Cardinals (4th place in Pool B) by the widest margin in a game (48 points) in both division I and division II brackets. The girls were on fire, in a game where they shot 81% from the free throw line (22 of 27 FTs) and getting the widest margin (58 points) in the whole AAU qualifier. Babette had career-high 25 points (including 13 FTs out of 16), followed by Janel's 10, Erica's 9 points (5/6 FTs), Danielle's 8 points (2/2), Anna (8), Lauren 5 (1/1 FTs) as well as Katy's 5 points (1/2 FTs)

Sirens finish first on PVAAU's Pool B

After a convincing victory over the VA Cardinals by 11 points, the Maryland Sirens ended up on top of Pool B, tied with two other teams (Lady Lakers and the Cardinals) but notching the top spot due to points difference. The weekend showed a very poised Sirens team, controlling the ball and the tempo on offense and playing good defense, especially on Saturday evening with only 6 players.

Erica Adarkwa and Katy Cunha played a great game on Saturday noon against the Matrix. The game was very close in the third quarter but seven consecutive points from Katy (including a three pointer and a reverse layup) broke the Matrix' resistance and secured the Sirens first game in the PV AAU District Qualifier.

Erica and Yasmin played great defense as well. The Sirens capitalized on the free throw shooting with Lauren making 7 of 8 giving the Sirens a comfortable cushion in the last quarter to finish the Matrix 46-33.

On Saturday evening, with only 6 players in the roster, the Sirens faced a more physical team. The girls went ahead in the third quarter but run out of gas and lost by seven points (47-54) against the team from Bowie, MD. Anna and Janel had a good game and Yasmine played great, despite injuring her ankle during the game.

The game on Sunday showed the Sirens dominating the Cardinals in all phases of the game. Fast breaks initiated by Janel and Lauren gave easy lay ups for the guards and good ball movement against their zone defense made the Cardinal coach switch back and forth from zone to man to man. The Cardinals tried to put pressure with a full court defense but the girls were extremely efficient, moving the ball with few dribbling and going strong to the basket.

Janel played great from the baseline, like a quarterback finding wide receivers all over the court. Good ball handling by all the girls make this victory possible. Lauren, Anna and Erica had a great game on offense, while Katy, Babette and Janel gave it all on defense. Danielle played a great game driving to the basket and finding her teammates against the zone defense.

13U - Division II
Medal Round
1st Place Pool A
4th Place Pool B
2nd Place Pool B
3rd Place Pool B
2nd Place Pool A
3rd Place Pool B
4th Place Pool B
1st Place Pool B

Final Standings

Sirens at Martinsburg, West Virginia on April 11th 2010.
Front Row (L-R): Yasmine Reed, Erica Adarkwa, Anna Warfield, Katy Cunha.
Back Row: Janel Brown, Lauren Green, Allison Hanson, Babette Sanmartin.

When (basketballs) size matters

In Basketball, bigger is always better. Maybe not, basketballs don't have to be big. And here is the reasoning for saying so. See full article here