Saturday, December
29, 2007
By
Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
SADDLE
BROOK – Both the Lodi and Mahwah girls basketball teams
headed into Friday’s Saddle Brook Holiday tournament championship
game with a chance to do something that neither program has achieved
in some time. After dismal seasons in recent years, both teams
are in position to make a run at a Bergen County tournament berth.
The winner of this game would move one step closer to an unlikely
goal set at the beginning of this season.
After a nightmarish
first half, Mahwah’s Katie Cochran came alive. She scored
11 of her game-high 15 points in the third quarter, including
a trio of three-pointers, to put Mahwah in front to stay. Amanda
Daniele hit three free throws over the final 90 seconds to help
put the game away as Mahwah repeated as the Saddle Brook Holiday
Tournament champion with a 36-31 win over the upstart Lady Rams.
“This is a game
we probably would not have won last year,” said Mahwah head
coach Mike Branagh. “We were outplayed in the first half
and we couldn’t hit a shot, but we didn’t quit. We
stayed focused and we kept playing with confidence.”
Mahwah started off
ice cold from the outside and the Rams did a good job in limiting
them to one shot per possession. Jasmine Daniels controlled the
glass and hit a runner from the elbow late in the second quarter
as Lodi held a three-point lead at the half, 15-12.
Cochran did not hit
any of her seven three-point attempts in the first half, but the
junior guard was unfazed. Once she hit the first one, the confidence
grew and she hit three of her four attempts from long range in
the third quarter, the last of which gave the Lady Thunderbirds
a four-point lead.
“I had a terrible
first half, but coach (Branagh) just told me to keep shooting,”
said Cochran. “I wasn’t helping me teammates out at
all and I had to step it up. When I finally hit my first shot,
I got into a groove.”
Lodi did not cave and
got to within one point going into the fourth quarter on a conventional
three-point play from Lindsay Newarski, 26-25.
The T-Birds got a break
when Lodi center Cori Santana picked up her fourth foul with 6:45
to play. However, they were not able to stretch their lead in
the 3-plus minutes she was on the bench.
Lodi crept to within
a point with under two minutes left before Mahwah came up with
its biggest play of the game. On the ensuing possession, Amanda
Daniele got fouled and hit her first free-throw. She missed the
second, but Cochran grabbed the offensive rebound and laid it
back in to push the lead back up to four.
“That was the
play that really hurt us,” said Lodi head coach John Way.
“If we grab the rebound there, come down and score, it’s
a tie game with us having the momentum. I proud of the way we
fought hard, we just couldn’t get over the hump and get
the lead back.”
Newarski hit a three-pointer
from the corner with 1:02 to play, trimming the lead back down
to one. After Daniele went 1 for 2 at the charity stripe, the
Rams had a pair of three-pointers inside the final minute to take
the lead. However, it was not to be for Lodi as both shots were
off the mark. Daniele and Sara Sokolik hit free throws late to
put the game away.
Daniels led Lodi (3-2)
in rebounds and points with 17 and 12, respectively. Santana added
eight points, eight rebounds, and four blocks. The loss is a stinging
one for the Rams, but they are still in position to make the Bergen
County Tournament, something they haven’t even come close
to since 2002. After starting off 0-7 last year and winning just
five games in the previous two seasons, the prospects are bright.
Cochran finished with
15 points and nine rebounds for Mahwah (3-2). The T-Birds also
got a solid contribution from Karissa Silento, who had nine points
and nine rebounds.
“We have set
goals of making the counties and the states and every win helps
towards that goal,” said Daniele. “We had a really
bad first half, but we stayed positive and we fought through it.
I think we proved today that we can find ways to win even when
we’re not playing our best.”
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