St. Frances coach Jerome Shelton is always quick to compliment his team, but his players saw a change in his attitude in practices this week.
"I love to praise the team, but I have to be the bad guy and get on them in order to get this team to play to its potential," said Shelton, who was not pleased with his team's performances, specifically a near upset loss to St. John's of Washington, D.C., ,, on Monday.
Whatever he said seems to have worked.
Playing well for the third straight game, the fourth-ranked Panthers defeated No. 6 Howard, 62-45, in the Fuel Fund Classic at UMBC yesterday.
Howard (3-1), playing on the court where it won the Class 3A state title last March, was unable to mount a serious threat against the quicker Panthers.
St. Frances (6-1), which never trailed, seized a 15-8 lead after the first quarter and extended its advantage to 29-20 at halftime. The Panthers then opened the third quarter on a 17-4 run and led by at least 16 points the rest of the way.
St. Frances had beaten Catholic League rivals St. Mary's (43-39) and Mount de Sales (60-46) earlier this week.
"Our last three games, there has been a definite shift back to where we need to be in terms of our attitude and our ability," Shelton said.
"Defensively, we're rebounding and getting out and running the break, which is something we hadn't done early in the year. We were holding the ball too much. We had to get back to playing the way we play, which is an up-tempo game."
Twins Kortni and Kristi Webb have been playing especially well.
Yesterday, Kortni, a 6-foot-1 senior center, scored a team-high 18 points. Kristi, a 5-10 senior forward, added 17 points, six rebounds and six steals. In the past three games, Kortni has scored 46 points, Kristi 45.
The Webbs' strong play has come at an opportune time -- with St. Frances All-Metro forward Melba Chambers in an offensive slump.
Chambers, who averaged 21 points last season, scored 10 yesterday and has averaged just 8.4 points in her past five games after scoring 48 in her first two.
"Melba's struggling a little bit from the field," Shelton said. "But she's a player that can adjust to any situation on the floor. She knows that she has a lot of help out there, so she doesn't mind giving up the ball. But we also know that when we need a basket we can count on her."
Howard coach Craig O'Connell had only two players he could count on yesterday -- Mona Jackson (25 points) and Chanelle Carter (15 points).
"We struggled offensively, we struggled defensively, we didn't shoot the ball well, we didn't rebound and all those ingredients lead to defeat," said O'Connell, who has three starters back from last season's team, which overcame a mediocre regular season to win its first state championship. "But every December we're like this, and I just look to improve."