Wednesday, March 5, 2008

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

WAYNE – Holding an 11-point lead late in the third quarter, it would be easy to assume that the Pascack Valley girls basketball team would cruise to victory no matter the opponent. The Indians hold onto a lead as well as any team in the state with their deliberate, efficient offensive strategy. But the opponent on Tuesday night was Pascack Hills, a team that has been agonizingly close over the past three years to winning a section title.

Pascack Hills, the No. 2 seed, whittled it down to a one-possession game on two occasions in the final two minutes, but the Indians never gave up their lead. Rebecca Lynch hit two free-throws with 14.2 seconds left for the final margin and the Cowgirls never got off a last shot as top-seeded Pascack Valley won the North 1, Group 2 championship with a thrilling 54-51 triumph at Passaic County Tech in Wayne.

“We want to go as far as we can and we’re happy that we can keep playing,” said Lynch, the PV senior who will play next season at St. Peter’s College. “We know Pascack Hills well and they know us well. There was a lot of pressure in this game and we had to try and rise above it. We have taken our whole season one quarter, one game at a time. As big as this game was, we couldn’t treat any differently than we treated every other game.”

Both teams came out strong in the opening quarter and neither could gain a significant advantage. Sara Ely’s hit 1 of 3 free-throws with no time left in the opening period to give PV a 12-10 lead.

Maggie Ely heated up from the floor in the second quarter as Pascack Valley stretched its lead. She hit a pair of three-pointers; the latter put the Indians up nine. The Cowgirls got a little momentum going into the locker room at halftime with two steals and lay-ups to trim the lead down to five, 30-25.

A textbook give-and-go on the fastbreak by Tiffany Fischer and Teresa Kirkpatrick, who finished off the play with a lay-up, cut the lead to one early in the second half. The Indians responded on the very next possession with a three-pointer from Sara Ely. That started a 10-0 run where she scored seven of the 10 points to help Pascack Valley take a 40-29 lead.

Pascack Hills sliced the lead down to four, 45-41, midway through the period on a strong move to the basket by Julianne Funtsch. The Indians bounced right back on the next possession when Mary Beierle drove to her left and banked a running lefty shot from eight feet to put them back up six.

“They gave me the lane and I just went for it,” said Beierle, the youngest of three sisters (Cassie and Dana are the others) to play for head coach Jeff Jasper. “We run something like that on the high-post screen every day. I just had an opening to the basket and I drove. It’s my senior year and I wasn’t scared to take the shot.”

“The true part of a player is, ‘Are you willing to take the risk?’” added Jasper. “It’s not so much of whether you make the shot or not. Mary (Beierle) was willing to take the risk and made the shot.”

Hills’ Michelle Feldman hit a three-pointer to cut the lead to a basket, 49-47, with 1:35 to go and the Cowgirls then forced a turnover that looked as if it might lead to a game-tying layup, but Terry Ely sprinted back and forced a rushed shot that came up short off the rim. PV’s Alli Lombardi was fouled on the rebound and hit two free-throws to make it 51-47 with 1:14 to go.

Feldman kept the Cowgirls in the game with a pair of baskets, the second of which cut the lead to 52-51 with 15 seconds left. Lynch was fouled on the inbounds and stepped to the line for the biggest free-throws of her life. She calmly hit both shots with 14.2 seconds left to put Valley back up by three.

With a foul to give, the Indians wisely let Pascack Hills come over the mid-court line and administered a foul. That took nine seconds off the clock and forced the Cowgirls to get the ball inbounds and try to make off a three-point shot in less than six seconds. The Cowgirls got the ball into Aubrey LaRezza, who was then triple-teamed.

LaRezza moved the ball to Feldman, but she was unable to get off a shot before the final buzzer sounded as Pascack Valley survived to claim the North 1, Group 2 state sectional title.

Sara Ely had 16 points and Lynch added 15 for Pascack Valley (28-1). Mary Beierle netted a season-high eight points for the Indians, who held a 22-15 edge in rebounds.

Feldman led three Pascack Hills (22-5) players in double-figures with 16 points. LaRezza and Kirkpatrick chipped in with 14 and 11, respectively. The loss was an unfortunate one for the Cowgirls, who fell for the third consecutive year in the section final.

Pascack Valley moves into the Group 2 semifinals where it will face Hanover Park. The Hornets defeated Rutherford on Tuesday night for the second straight year in the North 2, Group 2 final. The game will be at Vernon Township High School on Thursday at 6:00.

“Everyone has to contribute to beat a great team like Pascack Hills and that’s what we got,” said Jeff Jasper, who won his 13th section title and now sits just two wins away from career win No. 800. “Pascack Hills is a terrific team and we had to play at a very high level to get past them. We don’t have a jet for a point guard and we don’t have a big post player, so we have to rely on an awful lot of precision and finesse to succeed at the highest level. If I was a fan and I spent my six bucks to watch this game, I got my money’s worth.”

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