DePaul freshman MacKenzie Lynch scored 15 points in the county final.

WAYNE - Fifteen year old Essence Carson was not even born the last time the Eastside Ghosts won the Passaic County title back in 1985,but on Saturday the sophomore brought the county title back to the Paterson high school by leading her team to a 56-40 drubbing of DePaul in Saturday's final.

Carson was a force the Spartans could not find an answer for, scoring a game-high 30 points, grabbing 15 rebounds and blocking five shots to give the Ghosts this year's title. The sophomore stamped herself as a dominant fixture in the county, drawing comparisons to arguably one of the best players in county history, former Kennedy standout Nicole Louden, who is now playing at Auburn University.

"It was important that we came at them today (with the fullcourt press) and wear them down," said Carson who at time dazzled fans and the players on the court with some sensational moves. "We figured if we kept doing that, they would eventually give up and they did."

Carson's play along with Eastside's defense set the tone of the game. The Spartans (16-8) came in as the higher seed, but the Ghosts came in having won 15 of their last 16 games and their depth played a major role against a Spartans team that does not have the luxury of a deep bench.

Eastside (17-7) head coach Ed Black was able to make wholesale changes, bringing in fresh legs to attack the Spartans on both ends of the floor. The wear and tear on the Spartans began to show early in the second half.

Trailing by one at the break, 23-22, the Spartans found themselves still in the game, but on the verge of faltering. Carson made sure that was the case as the sophomore took over in the third quarter, setting the stage for Eastside's first title in 17 years.

Carson outscored DePaul 11-8 in the third quarter and, as a team, the Ghosts outscored DePaul 19-8, building a 12-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.

The Spartans were never able to get closer and as the game entered the final moments, the loyal Ghosts fan base, with a victory seconds away, began to chant the school's song, 'Fair Eastside' and Black and his girls had realized their dreams of a county title.

"My philosophy since I have been coaching is (for my players) to give me an effort," said Black. "When I watched [DePaul] play, I noticed that they don't play the full court game like we do so I knew if we played them fullcourt, they would eventually get tired.

"I respect them that much (as a team) but if wasn't a fact that we were trying to worry about them scoring, but you can't score if you're tired, and we wore them down today."

As for the Spartans, the loss was very emotional for senior Kristin Emma, the team's leader. Emma came into Saturday's final needing 15 points to eclipse the 1,000 career point mark, she finished with 16 points (1,001 for her career) and 10 rebounds.

Her final two points to eclipse the 1,000 mark came with 3:39 remaining. There was no stoppage of play to congratulate Emma, but her family and several Spartans fans began to chant her name "Emma, Emma" as a sign of affection to a player that game after game laid in on the table for her team.

"I played with my heart (my four years here) and I don't feel bad about anything," said Emma fighting back the tears. "I really wanted this (a county title) but you don't get everything you want."

Spartans head coach Paula Lasalandra summed up her team's performance as simple as it can get when all was said and done, "You can't win championships when you make a lot of mistakes."

On Saturday, the Spartans made too many mistakes and were never able to recover.

"We were just missing assignments today, we missed a lot of easy lay-ups, which hurt. Coming in here down by one at half, we knew we still had to block out and we lost the battle on the boards today," said Lasalandra. "Carson was outstanding today and she can do it all."

Freshmen Mackenzie Lynch added 11 points and 12 rebounds for the Spartans. Kristin Koenig also pulled down 10 rebounds for DePaul.