Friday, February 13, 2009

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Erin O'Hagan supplied quality minutes on both ends of the floor for Ramapo, which mainted its share for the top spot in Division 1 of the NBIL with a 40-36 win over Pascack Hills.

FRANKLIN LAKES -- When Pascack Valley lost to Fair Lawn for the first time ever earlier in the afternoon, the Pascack Valley girls basketball team knew it still had a cushion to work with in its pursuit of the NBIL Division 2 title. But Fair Lawn's win also meant that Ramapo had no such luxury in the race for the Division 1 championship. Ramapo needed the win to stay even with Fair Lawn and played like the more desperate team on Wednesday night in Franklin Lakes.

And if not for a tough time at the free throw line in the fourth quarter, Ramapo would have won going away. Instead, it made just 6 of 19 free throws in the final eight minutes, but had built up enough of a cushion before that to hold on for a 40-36 win and its spot in a two way tie atop the league standings.

“You might think by watching us that we don’t work on free throws, but the kids know that we have to make foul shots to win games and we almost gave this one away,” said Ramapo head coach Sandy Gordon. “We lost the two Fair Lawn games shooting 10 for 22, but tonight we were fortunate to hang on. As we move on now into the next round of the counties and the states, we are not going to be able to advance unless we shoot better from the free throw line.”

This 3-pointer by Krista LaRezza kept Pascack Hills in the game well into the final minute.

But before the foul shooting trouble set in (the Raiders were 4 of 4 from the line in the first three quarters), Ramapo was played the complete game to build its lead, one that grew to as many as 13 points when Sarah Halejian accelerated on her last step to make a layup that gave Ramapo the first points of the fourth quarter and a 34-21 advantage.

At this point in her sophomore season, Halejian’s offensive abilities are a given. She scored 23 of her team’s 40 points, but with one starter, Sam Klie, limited by illness and another key contributor, Emma Giegerich, out with a leg injury, Ramapo’s rotation was shortened. It needed others to fill the gaps and in stepped Erin O’Hagan and Amanda Schellaci.

O’Hagan scored two first quarter field goals, finished with five points and contributed on the defensive end all night long.

“I knew I had to be aggressive and step it up on defense because I knew that Pascack Hills had great shooters and they are a really good team,” said O’Hagan. “A lot of our girls were down tonight so we all had to do more. I was a little nervous going in, but once I hit my first shot I settled down and just played.

Amanda Schellaci did a solid job inside for a shortened Ramapo rotation.

Schellaci, a senior starter, never left the floor and went the whole 32 minutes guarding Pascack Hills' senior standout Teresa Kirkpatrick in the man-to-man defense that Ramapo employed from start to finish. Schellaci scored four points, grabbed five rebounds and made both of her free throw attempts.

“Teresa Kirkpatrick is an awesome player and I give her all the credit in the world, but it I knew it was my job to if not shut her down, then to stay in front of her and work hard,” said Schellaci. “She is such a big part of their team, but they are all good and we all had to work together on defense.”

Ramapo’s defense did not allow double digits in any of the first three quarters as the Green Raiders led 11-9 after the first quarter, 21-15 at halftime and by 32-21 after three quarters.

“We had too many turnovers and many of those were unforced turnovers,” said Pascack Hills head coach Chris LoVerme, whose team fell to 19-3 on the season. “We need to play better. We need to play crisper, cleaner basketball, which we haven’t been doing for the last two weeks now.”

Julianna Funtsch finished with 8 points for Pascack Hills, which fell to 19-3 with the loss.

Ramapo missed three free throws in the first 1:21 of the fourth quarter and Pascack Hills used the misses to make a bid to get back in the game. Michelle Feldman made a steal and layup and then made a three pointer to get the Cowgirls back to within single digits at 34-26 with 5:01 left to play in the game. Ramapo kept PH at arm’s length for the next four minutes but still couldn’t completely slam the door. Two missed Ramapo free throws with 1:09 left and a one-of two trip by Halejian with 44 seconds left put her team up 40-30 with 44 seconds left, but Krista LaRezza and Feldman hit back-to-back threes, the latter with 20 seconds to go.

That was followed by a Ramapo turnover and the Cowgirls could have gotten back to within a single possession for the first time since the first quarter, but Halejian blocked a Pascack Hills three-point attempt and time ran out on the Pascack Hills comeback.

Halejian led all scorers with her 23 points and the Green Raiders spread the rest of their offense around between five other players. O’Hagan and Schellaci combined for 9 points, Ana Drehwing had a three-pointer and a free throw, Kelly Mitchell made a field goal off the offensive glass and Erinn Hogan’s lone field goal was the one that gave Ramapo the lead for good at 11-9 with 1:49 to play in the first quarter.

Feldman led Pascack Hills with 11 points with 8 of them coming in the fourth quarter. Kirkpatrick finished with 9 points and Julianne Funtsch and LaRezza each had eight points as four of the Cowgirls’ five starters accounted for all of their points.

Ana Drehwing made one of Ramapo's four three-pointers.

Thursday night’s game was just Round 1 between these two teams, who will face off again on Sunday in the quarterfinals of the Bergen County Tournament, but that is not to say that either coach was holding anything back on Thursday night.

“We went all out to win this game. This is not baseball where we were holding back our best pitcher. This is basketball and we wanted to win this game and we’ll do the same on Sunday,” said LoVerme. “We are going to have to pay closer attention to detail though if we are going to win on Sunday.”

Ramapo hopes to be at full strength for the quarterfinal matchup as Gordon expects Klie to be back closer to full speed and Giegerich to at least be suited up for possible action. But regardless, Ramapo expects to handle Sunday’s rematch the same way it did the first time around.

“Honestly, I was playing to win to night and I was going to do whatever we had to do to win,” said Gordon, whose team improved to 19-3. “They have tape on us, we have tape on them and they know what stuff we run. Sunday will be a whole new game. We’ll see how it plays out and we’ll adjust if we have to.”

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