Refreshing Sonia Citron
by BabaGhanouj (2020-07-06 10:24:49)
Edited on 2020-07-06 12:23:36
Post Reply Return to McGraw's Bench

In this long basketball drought toward…well, perhaps a longer drought, one thing that we can always count on is hope of a bright future. Hope sustains us all, even when it may not necessarily be supported by the past.

One happy hopeful is Sonia Citron. We all know that Payton Verhulst won the MVP award for the FIBA U16 Women’s Americas 2019 games. She was deserving, but arguably won because she was high scorer, 14.5 points per game—just edging out Sonia, who had 13.3. With so many stats describing the game, it’s strange that awards still focus on ‘points per game’.

Both started and played about the same number of minutes, 19.3 per game for Sonia and 17.5 for Payton. Both had exactly the same number of rebounds, 17. But Sonia had twice as many assists, 11 vs. 5 and twice as many steals, 19 (highest on the team) vs. 7. Additionally, Payton took many more shots than Sonia, 75 to 58. Thus, Sonia’s True Shooting Percentage was much higher, an astounding 66% vs. 56.7% for Payton. Likewise Calculated Efficiency for Sonia was 17.2, or 35.6 when projected for 40 minutes. Payton’s was 13.3 and 30.5.

So, happy hoop dreams,…at least during the 6 FIBA games, Sonia was clearly statistically the better player.

Of course, 6-7 Lauren Betts had a better Efficiency rating than anyone, with 24.0 or 48.7 over 40 minutes! Yes, hope in the future sustains us.




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