January
7, 2004
March 21,
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| Ashley Carr took over in the fourth quarter as Old Tappan got its record back to even on the season. | |
BERGENFIELD - Both Northern Valley/Old Tappan and Bergenfield girls basketball team jumped in the season with quality victories in their respective holiday tournaments.
The Golden Knights pulled off a four-point victory over highly-regarded St. Mary's (Ruth.) at the competitive Joe Polli Tournament, while Bergenfield cruised to the Viking Tournament title by knocking tournament host North Arlington from the unbeaten ranks with a 32-point shellacking.
The two
rivals got back to the NBIL portions of their schedules on Tuesday with high
expectations and much more at stake.
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| Ashley Lamparella scored seven points and helped OT hold off the late Bergenfield charge. |
Old Tappan's Ashley Carr owned the paint down the stretch, finishing with a double-double as the Golden Knights took advantage of the Lady Bears' poor free-throw shooting to escape with a 51-45 win.
"It was frustrating because I felt the game was slipping away from us," said Carr. "In the fourth quarter, coach (Brian Dunn) switched up what offense we were running and I think that was the key to the win. We were getting the ball into the low post and getting to the foul line. We didn't shoot free throws well today, but we hit them when they counted."
After Bergenfield hit two of its first three shots to jump out to a quick 4-0 lead to start the game, the Golden Knights responded by picking apart the quick Bergenfield defense and scoring the final 14 points of the quarter.
An Alexis
Keller jumper early in the second quarter capped a 16-0 Old Tappan (3-3) run
in which six different players scored. The Lady Bears were not about to get
blown off their home court and battled back to make it a game.
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| Melissa Smith hit a 3-pointer to get Bergenfield back to within three points after OT had built a 16-4 lead. |
Melissa Smith nailed a three to pull the Lady Bears within three and the deficit remained that way at halftime, 20-17.
"We lost our focus with our passing and they hit some shots to get back in it," said Dunn, who has coached Old Tappan to five NBIL Division titles in his previous six seasons at the OT head coach. "The girls were disappointed because we didn't take care of the basketball and after playing so well in the first quarter, we gave it all back. We just had to concentrate on feeding Ashley (Carr) in the post more. When we get the ball in her hands, good things happen."
Bergenfield kept coming and finally grabbed the lead, 31-29, with less than a minutes remaining in the third quarter on a three-point shot by point guard Vanessa Berrios. The two teams traded leads into the fourth quarter with the Lady Bears clinging to a 35-32 lead with just over six minutes left before Carr simply took over the game.
Carr
finally received the ball in positions where she could be effective and delivered
eight points in a 13-0 run to give the Golden Knights a 45-35 lead with 2:50
to play.
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| Vanessa Berrios (10 points) was one of three Bergenfield players to finish with double digits. |
Bergenfield clawed to within five points on a Kristine Tucker three-pointer with 1:21 to play and, after a pair of free throws by Amanda Williams stretched the OT lead to seven, Megan Mirkovic responded with her only bucket of the game, a three-point bomb that cut the lead down to four, 47-43.
However, Bergenfield never got any closer and Old Tappan squeaked out a six-point win that evened its record on the season.
Carr drove home the win with a 19-point, 10-rebound performance. No other player scored more than seven points (Ashley Lamparella), but the Golden Knights got strong overall games from Williams (6 points, 6 rebounds, 3 blocks) and Kristin White (5 rebounds, 5 assists).
Bergenfield
fell to 3-2 despite three players scoring in double-figures. Smith added four
steals, three rebounds, and two assists along with her 11 points. Tucker scored
11 points and Berrios chipped in with 10.
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| Old Tappan's Kaitlyn Keily turning the corner on the Bergenfield defense. |
Free-throw shooting was Bergenfield's Achilles' heal all night as it finished a dismal 2-12 from the foul line.
"In this league, you can't go 2-12 from the foul line and expect to win," said Bergenfield head coach Joseph Soporowski. "We worked so hard to get back the lead, but every time that we got the lead, we wouldn't block out, turn the ball over, or take a bad shot and they capitalized. It hurts because we did the same thing in a loss to Demarest, and I feel we could be 5-0 right now.
"But we have to go back the drawing board and stop making little mistakes. In this game, those little mistakes ended up costing us a win."
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