Sunday, February 1, 2009

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

EAST RUTHERFORD – Heading into his game against No. 6 seed Ramapo in Saturday’s first round of the Bergen County Tournament, Bogota head coach Sean Gaffney knew his team had a puncher’s chance. He knew everything would have to break for his team to pull one of the biggest upsets in county tournament history. Unfortunately, a traditionally slow-starting Ramapo team started off on fire and never gave the Lady Bucs a chance at the for that upset.

Deanna Devonchuk hit a pair of three-pointers and sophomore Sarah Halejian hit another as Ramapo took a 17-point lead after the first quarter and cruised to a 65-32 triumph over Bogota, the No. 27 seed, at Becton Regional High School in East Rutherford.

“We understand that it is going to be really tough to win a game against a team this talented,” said Bogota head coach Sean Gaffney. “We felt maybe if they came out cold and we played well, we could keep it close in the first half and see what happens in the second. They shot the lights out in the first half, we were virtually without our best player, and we didn’t recover. It’s a great experience though to play a team like this. The team we were up against today is one that is very capable of winning this whole tournament. For us, it’s an honor to have the challenge of playing against such a good program.”

The Green Raiders have been plagued by slow starts for most of this season, but picked a good time to reverse that trend. Devonchuk provided an offensive spark off the bench scoring eight of her 10 points in the period, including nailing both of her three-point attempts. Overall, Ramapo hit 9 of 14 shots from the floor in the first quarter and built a comfortable 27-10 lead.

Sarah Halejian controlled the game from there, making smart decisions with the ball. Whether it was finding open teammates, or taking it to the basket, there was little the Lady Bucs could have done to slow down the silky smooth sophomore as Ramapo upped its lead to 23 points, 39-16.

Ramapo (16-1) showed off its balance offensively as eight different players scored at least four points, led by Halejian’s 15 on 7 of 12 shooting. Devonchuk added 10 points, while Amanda Shellaci and Ana Drehwing each had eight. Megan Lynch led all players with 17 points for Bogota (11-4). Jenna Appleton and Marissa Varon each hit a pair of three-pointers for six points.

The Green Raiders move into the Round of 16, where they will one of yesterday’s two huge upset winners, Glen Rock. The No. 22 seeded Lady Panthers led throughout in a 55-43 upset over 11th seeded Fair Lawn, a team that handed Ramapo its only loss in early January.

“We know we are not going to have any easy games the rest of the way here,” said Halejian. “We used the press to create turnovers and hit our shots in the first quarter to get off to a fast start. It allowed us to relax, get comfortable, and play our game. Every game is going to be a battle from here on out, and we’ll have to be ready for whoever we have to play.”

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