March
11, 2003
March 21,
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| Brittany Keil (5) scored 23 of her team's 34 points as the Sparta claimed the North 1, Group 3 title. | |
BAYONNE - With two teams that play defense as well as Sparta and Pascack Valley, especially in a game as important as the North 1, Group 3 state sectional final, the very arithmetic of basketball much be changed.
With every look at the basket, let a lone a made basket, having to be earned, a two-point lead was a big lead and a four-point advantage was a game-changer.
A Kelly
Keil putback with 2:22 to go in the third quarter gave Sparta a four-point
lead, its largest of the game to that point, and also gave its head coach,
Fred Geffken, his first chance to switch to a 2-3 zone that choked off the
interior and made it near impossible for PV to penetrate.
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| Heather Zurich (22) led PV with 12 points, most of them coming from along the baseline. |
Sparta (24-4) allowed just eight points over the final nine-plus minutes in a 34-28 win that handed Pascack Valley (26-2) just its second loss of the season, but also its last.
"We wanted to go zone, but we were behind. I knew that if we went to the zone without a four-point lead, they would just hold on to the ball," said Geffken, whose fifth-seeded team held both No. 1 Wayne Valley and No. 2 PV to just 28 points each on its way to the sectional title. "We were just working hard to get that four point lead and when we did, we went zone immediately."
Indians' head coach Jeff Jasper knew that Sparta's size up front, starting with Keil, the 6-2 freshman center, would make it tough for his team to score and falling behind was something that Jasper was not looking forward to.
"The
key against (Sparta) is that you have to maintain the lead," said Jasper,
whose team won its 25th straight division title this season. "As soon as they
went to that zone, they are just two [darn] big. It's going to be one-and-out
and unless you are shooting the lights out, it's not going to happen."
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| Freshman center Kelly Keil was dominant in the middle, blocking seven shots for Sparta. |
The game was so well played defensively that, until PV had to foul late in the fourth quarter in an attempt to get back in the game, there had only been two free throws attempted by the two teams combined, none at all in the first half. The game took just barely over an hour to play, including the 10-minute half time.
Pascack Valley had just three offensive rebounds in the second half and zero second chance points, which were a valuable asset in the first half. Bryanne Corra had four of her eight points off the offensive glass in the first half for PV, which carried a 16-11 lead into the break.
But the
difference maker on the offensive end was Sparta senior Brittany Keil, who
scored 23 of her team's 34 points. After PV's Heather Zurich hit a baseline
jumper to open the second half scoring and her team's biggest lead of the
game at 18-11, Brittany Keil hit a runner and, after Kelly Keil put in a tough
hoop inside off a set piece, Brittany hit a 3 to tie the game at 18.
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| Kristen Brown (35) was a main target of Sparta's 2-3 zone. |
"We were really being unselfish, running through the plays, setting screens and we knew that if we ran through the plays a couple of times that somebody would be open," said Brittany Keil, who came into the game averaging nearly 27 points per game. "That's really Pascack Valley's game, but we put it right back on them."
Brittany Keil than gave Sparta its first lead since midway through the first quarter with a baseline jumper before PV's Kristen Brown scored her only basket of the game to retie the score at 20. Brittany Keil then finished off a drive and Kelly Keil hit the putback to give the Spartans' their coveted four-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Brittany
Keil then opened the lead to 6 points with a long 2-pointer with her foot
on the line as the Spartans threatened to run away, but Zurich (12 points),
the only PV player to finish in double figures, hit another shot from the
baseline and Dana Beierle (6 points) then hit the first of her two fourth
quarter 3-pointers to bring the Indians back to within 1, 26-25, with 5:05
to play in the game.
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| PV's Dana Beierle hit two fourth quarter 3-pointers, the second of which tied the game with 2:52 to play. |
Beierle's second 3-pointer tied the game for the last time at 28-28 with 2:52 to go, but Brittany Keil answered the next time down the floor with another jumper to give the Spartans the lead for good.
With
four fouls to give, it wasn't until there were just 64 seconds left in the
fourth quarter that PV put Sparta on the line for the first time in the game.
Freshman point guard Staci Rossi was true on both ends of the Spartans' first
one-and-one for her only two points of the game, Brittany Keil was perfect
on her two attempts and Sparta was off to the Group 2 semifinals where it
will play the winner of the Monday night's North 2, Group 3 final between
Malcolm X Shabazz and Scotch Plains on Thursday at Vernon Township High School.
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| Sparta's freshman point guard Staci Rossi scored her only two points on two clutch free throws late in the fourth quarter. |
"This was definitely unexpected, especially after we lost to Jefferson in our county tournament," said Kelly Keil, who finished with 6 points, all in the second half, and six blocked shots. "There was no pressure on us, nobody really expected us to do anything this year because we are so young, so we just went out there and had some fun."
The loss ended PV's season on same floor at Bayonne High School where it won last season's sectional title with a win over Ramapo, the team that ended Sparta's 2002 season in the sectional semis. Without a senior in the starting lineup, the Indians figure to be back as they have been so many times before. But that is little consolation after 28 games and 26 wins this year.
"I told the team what I tell them all the time after every season," said Jasper, who just completed his 30th season as the PV head coach. "The greatest disappointment is that I can't come back in the gym with them tomorrow. It's not the losing of the game, it's that I can't coach them again. That's harsh for me."
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