Anwar Gladden sounded like Allen Iverson for a second. Practice? Yeah, he was talking about practice.
His South Shore girls basketball team didn’t get in a gym to work on things at all over the holiday break and it resulted in two blowout losses in three games. The Vikings have since been able to work out their kinks and, the coach said, it resulted in a 60-43 win Sunday against Thomas Jefferson at the PSAL Mid-Winter Classic at Long Island University in Brooklyn.
“We got to practice,” said Gladden, taking the opposite tact of Iverson, who once denounced practicing in a famous internet clip. “We had a gym. I need to schedule a little better.”
The improvement was evident right from the start. South Shore (9-2, 8-0 PSAL Brooklyn AA Group 1), ranked No. 10 in New York City by The Post, started the game on a 12-2 run and star junior guard Jasmine Odom had eight first-quarter points, including a pair of 3-pointers.
“I came out saying we gotta win,” Odom said. “It’s a big game. We came out with a lot of intensity.”
Once she got going, the rest of the Vikings seemed to follow. South Shore led Jefferson (5-6, 5-2 Brooklyn AA Group 2), 27-14, and was up by as much as 25 points in the fourth quarter. Odom finished with 20 points, Jenice Winter had 11 points and Taylor Lloyd added nine.
“She started out on fire early,” Gladden said of Odom. “She came out aggressive, but people weren’t watching her be aggressive. They were getting into it, too. Over the break, it was like The Jasmine Odom Christmas Show.”
Winter, a highly touted sophomore, had one of her best offensive games. She scored a few times on strong moves to the basket and showed off a reliable mid-range jumper. Gladden said he talked over the break about visualizing the game better. Winter responded with 14 points this week against Beach Channel.
“She never comes out of the starting lineup, because she’s one of our hardest workers,” the coach said.
Providence-bound guard Alicia Cropper led Jefferson with 18 points, but South Shore did a good job of turning her into a jump shooter and keeping her out of the lane, where she’s adept at dishing off to open teammates.
“After watching her play for so many years, I know that she’s most dangerous when she’s getting her teammates involved,” Gladden said of Cropper.
Danielle Pearson, who is also heading to Providence, had 10 points and Shakera Williamson added eight for the Orange Wave. Pearson was mired in foul trouble throughout and that’s a recipe for disaster for Jefferson, which only has two (Pearson and Cropper) players with significant varsity experience.
“We couldn’t even get a full effort out of her,” Orange Wave assistant coach Dinero Young said.
The Jefferson players called this game personal during the week because the Vikings beat them last year en route to an appearance in the PSAL title game. Cropper and Odom got into a heated exchange in the third quarter, but Odom brushed it off.
“I just think of it as another win,” she said.
An important win, though, given how South Shore played. The Vikings looked rejuvenated after a lethargic holiday slump.
“I think there’s not many teams top to bottom that have as much talent as we do,” Gladden said.
But all of that talent doesn’t make a difference, it seems, if the Vikings can’t find a gym.
“I think it starts with practice,” Lloyd said. “If we have a good practice, we have a good game.”
Somewhere Allen Iverson is shaking his head.
