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By Joseph Staszewski
Brooklyn Daily
Nazareth’s Yazmine Belk displayed how she’s grown as a player last Thursday night, much to the chagrin of Archbishop Molloy.
The Virginia Commonwealth University-bound forward had a double double in the first half alone in Nazareth’s 66–55 win over the visiting Stanners in Brooklyn/Queens Division I girl’s basketball last week. Belk scored 14 of her 16 points in the first half and added 17 rebounds.
She did so by stepping out and making midrange jumpers and attacking the offensive glass. Nazareth built a 20–7 first-quarter lead that it never relinquished.
Belk said her performance showed off skills she didn’t have as an underclassman.
“I felt really good.” Belk said. “I felt like I could do anything, go to the foul line and make shots even if the hand was in my face.”
Her consistency doing so is the measure of her transformation as a player. Nazareth coach Ron Kelley said he had to rethink how he used Belk. Her 6-foot-2 frame made her appear to be the perfect candidate to stick on the block and feed the ball into. But Belk never got comfortable there, and spent all last season working on her mid-range game. She is now enjoying the fruits of all that hard work.
“She’s not really a back-to-the-basket kind of kid.” Kelley said. “Yaz had to take a year of really shooting the ball. It took a year and she really worked hard at it. Now you see the results.”
Her team also heeded the call for better defense and played with the energy and effectiveness missing in a loss to rival Christ the King. Belk said her teammates looked like they didn’t know how to play defense at all against the Royals., but that wasn’t so against Molloy (2–2, 0–1). They talked more on defense, rotated and fouled less. Nazareth (4–1, 2–1) turned the Stanners over often, sped up the pace of game. Molloy got as close as 49-35 early in the fourth quarter.
“We are actually learning from our mistakes,” South Carolina-bound guard Bianca Cuevas said. “It shows our defense is getting better.”
Cuevas scored 15 points and dished out eight assists, Niya Johnson had 13 points and 11 boards, and Shiclasia Brown chipped in four points, seven rebounds, seven assists and six steals. Nyasha Irizarry, who is headed to Manhattan College, led Molloy with 25 points, and Aryn McClure added 12 points.
Kelley believes his team, which has won three straight, is beginning to play well at a good time. Nazareth follows this game with a trip to three national showcase events, including the prestigious Nike Tournament of Champions in Phoenix, Ariz., starting on Dec. 19. Kelley wants his team to continue to play with the passion it showed against Molloy.
“This is the way I wanted us to come out,” Kelley said. “I want us to be able to play this way all season long.”