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| Ramapo wins its first ever Bergen County championship | ||||||||||||
It was Ramapo’s third trip to the county final in the last four years and the first time the Raiders were able to leave victorious. They are now 25-2 on the season. “I’ve never wanted to win any one game so badly in my whole life and this feels so good; better than I thought it would,” said Ana Drehwing, the only player on the Ramapo roster who saw playing time in the 2007 loss in the county final. “At the beginning of the season I had no idea that at this point we would be standing here in my senior year with a county championship. I can’t believe that we did it and I am so proud of everyone.” And everyone that head coach Sandy Gordon ran out there, especially through the first three quarters, contributed in some way to keep Ramapo in the game until Halejian could find some breathing room. After opening the game with four straight points and forcing an early time out by St. Mary head coach Kerry Dressel, Ramapo looked out of sorts as the Gaels put together a 9-1 run to bridge the end of the first quarter and the start of the second. When Shanice Hawkins hit a runner 41 seconds into the second quarter, St. Mary had opened a 14-7 lead. A three-pointer by Drehwing and a layup by Amanda Schellaci finished a 9-2 run the other way and brought Ramapo all the way back into a 16-16 tie with 2:24 to play in the first half. Although the Green Raiders did not take the lead until there were just over two minutes played in the fourth quarter, they never let St. Mary’s go ahead by more than three points over the next 12:40.
The game was tied twice in the third quarter, the first time at 27 when Samantha Klie made a three-pointer from the top of the key and the second time at 29 when Emma Giegerich pulled up on the fastbreak and banked home a short jumper. It was those types of contributions that were so key for Ramapo. Whether it was a pick set or rebound grabbed by Erinn Hogan, three field goals, one in each of the first three quarters, by Kelly Mitchell, a stick back of a missed shot by Erin O’Hagan, Klie’s ability to bring the ball over halfcourt or Drehwing making an open jumper, the Green Raiders all played a part in keeping them in the game. “We can’t win any game without Sarah, she is an amazing player, but our team works really well together and we can’t win without any of us doing what we are supposed to do,” said Hogan. “We boxed out, we got rebounds and we did whatever we had to do to get the win. It really is a team effort.”
She broke a personal scoring drought of nearly 10 minutes with a hard drive to the baseline on which she made a tough shot and the accompanying free throw to get her team within one point and then gave the Raiders a lead at 35-34 when she nailed the three-pointer from the corner off an inbounds play with 5:44 to play. After a St. Mary miss, Halejian stayed tight on a Hogan screen to get free for a basket that forced a timeout and made St. Mary pay for a travelling violation with a pull up jumper. After scoring just five points over the first 24 minutes of the game, Halejian scored nine straight for her team in just 3:24 and put the Raiders in front, 39-34, with 4:09 to go. “I was mostly just bringing the ball up and I wasn’t involved in the offense, so coming into the fourth quarter I knew that I knew I had to get more involved. I knew I had to start taking over a bit and helping my teammates,” said Halejian. “I don’t know where I got the extra energy from, but I knew we just had to try to pull away.” Ramapo got away for a possession before Kiyana Dunston made two free throws for St. Mary’s and the Raiders missed the front end of a one-and-one. Tolbert then put back her own missed shot and the Gaels drew to within 39-38 with just less than two minutes to play and even withstood and old fashioned three-point play by Drehwing, who made a fastbreak layup despite being buried on the attempt to extend Ramapo’s advantage to 42-38. “I didn’t even see that girl coming and I am glad I didn’t because I probably wouldn’t have made that shot if I knew I was going to get fouled like that,” said Drehwing, who finished with 12 points. “I made the free throw too, which isn’t always my strong point, but like we always do we kept it interesting right until the very end.”
It got interesting when St. Mary scored four straight points, the second two on Hawkins’ coast-to-coast layup that tied game was even at 42 with 1:07 remaining. Ramapo took a timeout, ran nearly 30 seconds off the clock and then go the ball to Halejian, who was fouled hard on a baseline drive. She made both of her free throws and St. Mary made just one of two when it had it chance to tie the game with four seconds left. That left Ramapo needing to get the ball in bounds with no timeouts remaining and what was supposed to be a baseball pass into the front court turned into a floater near the three-point line that Hawkins intercepted. She made a hard drive to the left of the basket and let go a floater that bounced off the rim as time expired in, probably, the best Bergen County final to be played since Holy Angels beat Ridgefield Park in overtime in 1999. “There were some keys: handle the pressure, which we didn’t really do a great job of early, but we made some adjustments and then we did. Play good, solid ‘D’, limit their dribble penetration, which we really didn’t do. I was trying to get us to play a little bit tighter, but again we found a way,” said Gordon. “I’m almost at a loss for words, I’m so proud of them. We had a game plan and they stayed with it. Everyone did their part and that is why we are where we are right now because everyone has their little part and they all do it.” FOR MORE PHOTOS OF THIS EVENT OR TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS GAME STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com. ![]() |
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