Thursday, December 27, 2007

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Senior Rebecca Lynch scored 17 points and grabbed 19 rebounds, an emphatic double-double in Pascack Valley's 72-36 win over Queen of Peace, at the Joe Poli Holiday Tournament.

HILLSDALE -- Over the long and storied career of its head coach Jeff Jasper, the Pascack Valley girls basketball program has never been married to any one style of offense. When the Indians have height, they throw the ball inside. When they have just one or two players that are capable of shooting the ball, the Indians save all of the offensive opportunities for those players.

And then there are seasons like this one, one in which all are welcome to toss shots at the rim and the more the merrier.

“Every kid that is on the floor has the green light to shoot. We are not handcuffing anybody,” said Jasper, New Jersey’s all-time leader in girls basketball coaching wins, a number that is approaching 800. “We took 84 shots today. That is a lot of shots and that is the way we have to play. We need to take care of the ball, but at the same time we need to take shots.”

It’s hard to argue with the results through five games of the season. Pascack Valley scored the first 20 points of the game against Queen of Peace on Wednesday in the opening round of the Joe Poli Holiday Tournament, posted a
72-36 win and improved to 5-0.

Stephanie Wallace scored a team-high 17 points for Queen of Peace.

The hard part for opponents is that in addition to its now prolific offense, Pascack Valley still plays its stifling man-to-man defense, the calling card of the program in the 30-plus years under Jasper. The Indians held Queen of Peace without a point until there were nearly two minutes gone in the second quarter.

“Defense, that is no different than we have always been. If there is one staple [of the program] it is that fact that we play ‘D’,” said Jasper. “We are going to make possessions tough on some people.”

Pascack Valley is also deep, but just about all of its players are of like size, which makes rebounding a lesson in the fundamentals of boxing out and outhustling the opposition. A healthy Rebecca Lynch also helps as the senior forward, who missed the last half of last season with a knee injury, is back in form.

With sheer hustle, Lynch pulled down 19 rebounds against Queen of Peace to go along with her team high 17 points.

“It’s basically all or nothing now. We want to make a statement when we leave and we want to honor Joe Poli in our last year and make sure we get this done,” said Lynch, whose team will play host to St. Mary’s in the tournament semifinals on Friday. “I don’t know how to separate my team [goals] from myself, but I am going to put in everything I can to make sure we get far in anything we do. We are going to go for it every single game and appreciate everything.”

Sara Ely, who will play next season at UPENN, scored 15 points as PV improved to 5-0.

Lynch certainly appreciates Sara Ely as the two have been through the wringer together over the past four years. Both saw varsity playing time as freshmen when the Indians won a Bergen County championship, a Group 2 state title and a game in the Tournament of Champions as teammates of Heather Zurich, now starting at Rutgers.

Ely, who starts alongside her younger sisters Terry and Maggie, scored 15 points against Queen of Peace and made PV’s only two three-pointers in the game as the Indians did most of their damage with the midrange jump shot and by attacking the offensive glass.

“Rebecca and I have been waiting for this season it seems like forever,” said Sara Ely, who has already committed to play at the University of Pennsylvania next season. “We have put in so many hours in the gym since we were freshmen, so we are just ready to go for every game, every practice.”

Lynch and Sara Ely were the lone Indians to finish in double digits as PV spread the rest of the offense around. Mary Beierle, PV’s third senior starter, finished with eight points, with six of them coming in the first quarter as the Indians quickly took control of the game.

Julie Candio-Sekel finished with 10 points for QP, which fell to 3-2 with the loss.

Terry Ely, Britney Dimick, Tina Pinelli and Traci Corra all finished with six points for Pascack Valley, while Maggie Ely, Allison Lombardi, Jaclyn Martin and Kelly Bassett each made field goals.

Queen of Peace (3-2) is also a team in transition as it adjusts to new head coach Mike Isabella, who took over not too long before the season started. The Golden Griffins have three players returning from last year’s team that saw heavy varsity action and it was those three players that combined to score all of QP’s points on Wednesday.

Stephanie Wallace led the Griffins with 17 points, Julie Candio-Sekel finished with 10 and Brittany Turner had nine for Queen of Peace, which will play Holy Angels in a loser’s bracket game scheduled for Friday at 2:30 p.m. That game will be a rematch of last season’s quarterfinal matchup in the Bergen County Tournament, a game won by Holy Angels on its way to the Bergen County championship.

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