December
27, 2002
March 21,
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| Kristen Brown's inside/outside game helped Pascack Valley pull away. |
HILLSDALE - Over the years, the Joe Poli Christmas Tournament has become a staple of the holiday season, an opportunity to catch some of the best teams in Bergen County in an early-season test. In some ways, the tourney is almost a mini-county tournament, as 15 of the 22 previous Poli champs have also been county tournament finalists.
Pascack Valley, the tournament host, has won half of the previous tournaments, including the last three, and the Lady Indians appear ready to go for an even dozen. Once again PV seems to have the formula that works so well within head coach Jeff Jasper's system.
It's
called one part strong forward, one part solid perimeter shooter, one part
smart point guard and two parts systematic role players, and it has worked
for the previous 29 years during Jasper's career at the Hillsdale school.
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| Heather Zurich (above) and Kristen Brown each had 19 points and 14 rebounds for Pascack Valley. |
In PV's
Poli tourney opener against Cresskill, it was junior Kristen Brown inside,
sophomore Heather Zurich outside, junior Dana Beierle at the point and juniors
Jaclyn Creange and Bryanne Corra with the intangibles, and it spelled a 65-35
win over the Cougars.
The victory
moves the Indians into the semifinals against Old Tappan, a 48-38 winner over
Ridgewood, with the game to be played Friday at 4:15 at Pascack Valley. Cresskill
will take on the Maroons in a 2:30 start in the consolation bracket.
The Cougars
made a game of it for nearly a half, as junior Lisa Neira scored 17 of her
19 points in the first half, but Brown took over the third quarter with 8
points and 6 rebounds and Zurich punctuated it with 5 late points and 5 rebounds
as Valley used a 19-7 period to turn a 35-24 halftime lead into a 54-31 advantage
entering the fourth quarter.
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| Dana Beierle played well in the backcourt for Pascack Valley. |
"Both of their games have definitely improved," Jasper commented. "The whole idea to playing this game is to make yourself hard to guard, and if you can do that, then you become a pretty good offensive player.
"Both of them have made themselves a little harder to guard. That being said, you've got to love the way the others are playing as well, the way Bryanne is playing, the little things the guards are doing. They are still an inexperienced group overall, but they all bring a little compliment to the floor. And while Heather and Kristen are very fine players, they're only that way because they fit in so well with everybody else."
Brown
and Zurich both had 19 points and 14 rebounds, while Corra also had a double-double
with 11 points and 11 boards, as PV dominated the glass to the tune of 53-24,
including a whopping 25-3 margin on the offensive boards. Creange dropped
in a trio of three-point field goals in the first half and Beierle had six
assists and six rebounds.
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| Cresskill's Lisa Neira scored 17 of her 19 points in the first half. |
For Brown, it was a game where she overcame a jumper that wouldn't fall by working hard inside. With Cresskill trailing 32-24 in the final minute of the first half, she worked hard for a layup to push the lead to 10, and it was the beginning of the end for the Cougars.
"She has become more of an inside-outside player," Jasper said of Brown. "She didn't really shoot that well from the outside in this game, but she's really improved her stroke, and she's doing the little things."
She added
four of the first six baskets for the Indians in the second half, the last
of which extended the lead to 20 at 49-29 and effectively shut down any Cresskill
hopes of a comeback.
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| Paramus Catholic transfer Erica Ostrove is now Cresskill's starting point guard. |
While a 30-point win may be satisfying to most, for Jasper, it is a "W" that also exposed some of the early-season things the team needs to improve on. He said that, "I think we still have some major holes in our game. To think I'm happy with the way we played would be horrendous.
"Cresskill beat us in transition at will in the first half, and in the second half we turned the ball over countless times. Those are the things that can't happen, but those are the things that we take into practice tomorrow and go to work on."
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