Monday, January 21, 2008

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Aileen Daniel's ability to step away from the basket and hit the midrange jumpshot was a key to IHA's 43-42 win over Pascack Valley.

HILLSDALE -- From the traffic jam in the parking lot to the packed stands inside the gym to the level of competition on the floor. There was an unmistakable buzz surrounding Immaculate Heart Academy's visit to Pascack Valley High School for a charity match up between the two teams that have been the best in Bergen County through over the first month of the season.

And the game, the first of a marquee double-header with all proceeds going to benefit The Valley Program for Autism and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation did anything but disappoint.

Pascack Valley beat the buzzer with a half-court heave by Sara Ely to take the lead and did the same at the end of the third quarter when Alli Lombardi put back a missed shot to give the home team another one-point advantage. PV even got a last-second stick back by Tina Pinelli that just beat the fourth quarter horn, but the final buzzer beater was not enough to save the Indians.

Pinelli's basket came after a desperation three-point shot came up short and it left PV a point shy in a 43-42 loss, its first of the season, on Sunday afternoon.

Pascack Valley's Sara Ely scored a team-high 14 points before fouling out late in the fourth quarter.

IHA was nearly flawless in its offensive execution down the stretch of the game and showed the composure of a championship level team in sticking to its game plan, taking advantage of its matchup advantages and limiting its turnovers.

"The outcome I wasn't concerned with. It was our response to a situation like this is what I was more concerned with," said IHA head coach Steve Silver. "When you try to put in a game plan, both defensively and offensively, you just want to see it happen. You want to have an identity and we challenged our kids to find out what our identity was, and when you play games like this you are taking steps and starting to figure that stuff out."

IHA's identity is one of an old-fashioned man-to-man defense and an old-school offense where the bigs get plenty of touches and force the opposition into some tough decisions. Double down and Aileen Daniels or Brooke Lundy will kick the ball out to open shooters. Play heads up and the IHA post players will go to the basket. Choose the middle ground and IHA will opt for the midrange jumper and Daniels, for one, shoots it awfully well.

"We felt confident that Brooke and Aileen would command double and triple teams that would open up the outside for other players, which it did," said Silver, whose team just about wrapped up the top seed in the Bergen County Tournament, which will be seeded on Wednesday. "And we had to use Aileen's versatility. She can step out and hit that 15 footer and post people up."

Laura Benvenuto hit two of IHA's three-pointers and kept the PV defense from collapsing on the Eagles' post players.

Of Daniels' six field goals, four of them were on jump shots from between 10 and 15 feet from the basket. She scored four straight points to open the fourth quarter, two from the free throw line and two on a jumper from the wing, as IHA surged in front . Trailing 38-37 entering the fourth quarter, Daniels' four straight points matched Pascack Valley's entire point production over the final eight minutes and gave the Blue Eagles the lead for good.

"One of the things we talked about before the game is that they would double down in the post because of our height advantage and our guards had to be ready to shoot. They stepped up and made it much easier for me," said Daniels. "We kept our composure the whole game and there wasn't a single thing that we didn't accomplish that we worked on in practice. The box outs, the defensive drills, the free throws, all of it came into play today."

Pascack Valley got out to a quick lead and a Lombardi three-pointer with 43 seconds to go in the first quarter gave the Indians a 14-6 lead. Sara Ely had three first half three-pointers and 11 points in a first half in which she seemed to have all the answers.

When Shannon Bray snuck in for an offensive rebound and putback to get IHA within 21-20 with 2:33 to go in the first half, Ely hit a pretty reverse layup off a feed from her sister Terry. And after Laura Benvenuto hit a three-pointer and Daniels scored inside with five seconds left to play to give IHA its first lead since it was 2-0, Sara Ely chucked one up from halfcourt that went in and gave her team back the lead at 26-25 heading into the break.

Terry Ely's two free throws with 1:21 left in the game got PV to within one point at 41-40.

"It didn't deflate us at all," said Daniels of Ely's heave. "She made a great shot, but by that time we already knew that we could come back on them. We did it already in the first half."

IHA point guard Tara Schwitter scored the first four points of the third quarter on back to back drives to the basket and Lundy scored inside to give IHA its largest lead of the game at 31-26 just less than three minutes into the second half.

Sara Ely and Maggie Ely hit back-to-back three-pointers to help PV go back in front at 36-33, IHA answered with four straight points to retake the lead briefly before Lombardi's put back in the final second of the third quarter put the Indians up 38-37 heading into the fourth, but it was short-lived as Daniels' four straight pointsgave IHA the lead for good, although it was never comfortable.

PV was within one point at 41-40 with 35 seconds left and had a chance to take the lead, but two missed free throws let the opportunity slip away and Sara Ely fouled out 11 seconds later. Schwitter made two of four free throws in one-and-one situations in the final 19 seconds and those two points were just enough to make Pinelli's last second hoop a moot two points.

IHA point guard Tara Schwitter hit two free throws in the final 19 seconds to secure the win and, most likely, the top seed in the Bergen County Tourney.

"If you are going to be a point guard, you have to want to have the ball in your hands in the last seconds and you have to want to take those free throws. I missed two of them, but the two I made were just enough," said Schwitter. "But it was a total team effort for us today. When they made that shot at halftime we went into the locker room and everybody was talking about how we were not going to lose this game. Every girl on this team helped out today."

That was reflected in IHA's balanced score sheet. Daniels led the Eagles with 14 points, Schwitter added 12 and Laura Benvenuto made two first half free throws on her way to 8 points. Margie LaRiviera (5 points), Bray and Lundy, who scored two each, rounded out the Eagles' offense.

Sara Ely scored 14 points and Rebecca Lynch, Maggie Ely and Lombardi each scored 6 points for Pascack Valley, which suffered its first defeat after starting the season with 10 straight wins.

"It came down to a bounce here, a bounce there," said PV head coach Jeff Jasper. "I think the people who showed up to see this game got good entertainment, they saw good basketball and it was for a good cause. What could be better than that? There were no losers in this one."

FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS GAME OR TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS GAME STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com.