February
8, 2004
March 21,
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| Bryanne Corra was one of three PV starters to finish in double figures as the top-seeded Indians advanced to the Bergen County quarterfinals. | |
DEMAREST - On one end of the floor, Glen Rock had success in making it difficult for top-seeded and undefeated Pascack Valley in Saturday's Bergen County tournament Round of 16 matchup. The Panthers, seeded 17th, used their high pressure defense to get into some passing lanes, create some turnovers and give themselves some extra possessions.
But when Glen Rock (11-5) got the ball over half court on offense was when PV showed its dominance. The Indians allowed double digit scoring in only one quarter and allowed only four different Glen Rock shooters to score points as the top-seed advanced into next week's quarterfinal with a 54-31 win at Northern Valley/Demarest.
"When
we came out, we knew that they were going to pressure us because that is their
game and they weren't going to change it," said Dana Beierle, the PV point
guard. "They came after us and our team knew that we had to kill them on back
cuts and use that against them."
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| Pascack Valley's Kristen Brown scored 7 of his team high 17 points in the opening quarter. |
And PV did. With diagonal passes and well-timed backdoor cuts, the Indians took an 11-5 lead after the first quarter and stretched it to 25-11 at halftime. Kristen Brown scored 7 of her game-high 17 points in the opening quarter and Pascack Valley (17-0) then spread the offense around to open up the lead.
Jacklyn Creange (6 points) and Heather Zurich (14 points) each hit three-pointers, Brown knocked in a couple of baskets and Bryanne Corra had a putback in the second quarter as the Indians built a double digit lead that they kept the rest of the way.
"We are all so versatile on this team," said Brown. "We are all point guards, we are all centers and we try to do everything we can to get a win. Today it meant that more of us had to handle the ball against their press."
Glen
Rock, which overcame a double digit second half deficit last weekend against
Dumont just to make the Round of 16, made its best run at getting back in
the game in the third quarter with a 10-3 spurt. Sara Wolman, who led Glen
Rock with 11 points, started the run with a three-pointer that got the Panthers
to within 27-14.
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| Sara Wolman (11 points) was the only Glen Rock player to reach double digits. |
After a Zurich free throw, Marie Greene made a steal at halfcourt and took it in for a layup and Susan Strzelczyk followed with 2 of her 8 points on GR's next possession. When Caroline Glass (9 points) hit a three-pointer the next time down the floor, the Panthers were within 31-21 with 4:46 to go in the third quarter.
"The final score, it think, doesn't show how well we played and if you didn't know the score in the final minute, you wouldn't know that we were behind by 20 with how hard we were still playing," said Glen Rock head coach Dave Mosconi, whose team won its first county tournament game since 1997 last weekend. "This experience was huge. These girls have never been to the Round of 16, never played a No. 1 seed before and we showed that we could play. We just needed to make a couple of more shots in the first half to stay a little closer."
Brown
hit Corra (11 points) cutting backdoor with a bounce pass from the high post
and Corra's basket pushed the PV lead back to 33-21 with 3:37 to play in the
third quarter. The Indians closed out the stanza with a 13-point lead and
Creange hit a three to open the fourth quarter and the game was basically
decided.
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| Dana Beierle (right) earns another shot at Tenafly in next weekend's quarterfinals. |
"I think the first game in a tournament, regardless of what the seedings are, is an adrenaline-pumping, nerve-wracking experience," said PV head coach Jeff Jasper, whose team had a first round bye. "We needed to get through that. As we all know, except for IHA, Paramus Catholic and Holy Angels, all of the rest of the teams in the tournament are beatable, us included.
"Take those parochials, who all have way too much talent and way too much depth, out and the rest of us are all even. On any given day anything can happen."
Never was that more evident than last season when Tenafly, knocked off PV, then the No. 1 seed, in the quarterfinals. With Tenafly's 36-33 win over Bergen Tech last night in the Round of 16, the rematch is set four next weekend's Round of 8.
"We just have some unrest from that game (last year) and we want to put it away," said Corra. "We just want another chance and we'd like the opportunity to go at it again."
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