Friday, January 22, 2010

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Lisa Rovatsos finished with 19 points, 15 of them in the second half as Bayonne took the edge in the race for the top seed in the Hudson County Tournament with a 61-50 win over Marist on Thursday night.

BAYONNE – From their tenacious guard play and matching inside presences to their nearly identical records this season and their schools being just 25 blocks apart, there are numerous similarities between the Bayonne and Marist girls’ basketball teams. The one glaring difference is that Bayonne is the returning Hudson County champion, a goal that Marist is currently chasing.

When the two teams met on Thursday night there was a lot at stake and it showed in the manner in which the game was played as the winner was going to take the edge in the race for the top seed in the Hudson County Tournament.

Both teams came out with adrenaline and intensity that lasted from the opening tap until the final buzzer. So it was fairly obvious with how evenly these teams were matched that one run was going to be the difference.

Lisa Rovatsos scored a pair of buckets in an 11-0 run spanning the third and fourth quarters as Bayonne retained its spot at the head of the pack in Hudson County with a hard-fought 61-50 triumph at Marist High School.

“We know we have to get a lot better before the county tournament, but we’ll take this win any way we can get it,” said Bayonne’s Connie Hayes. “We knew in the fourth quarter that we had to take care of the ball and hit our free-throws, and that’s what we did.”

Desiree Denmark had a team-high 15 points for Marist, which fell to 103 on the season.

Bayonne held a lead throughout most of the first half, but Marist kept hanging around. Desiree Denmark’s basket gave the Knights their first lead, 20-19, but it did not last; something that would be a theme throughout the game. Hayes had a big first-half for Bayonne and hit a three-pointer that gave Bayonne a 25-20 halftime lead.

Marist started off the third quarter with three straight baskets, the last one a leaner from Denmark to put the Knights back in front. The teams traded the lead twice, including once in a 10-second span. Angela Randle hit a three-pointer to give Marist the lead, but Hayes allowed Bayonne to take it right back. Her only field goal of the second half was possibly the most important of the entire game. Her fadeaway three-pointer with a hand in her face put Bayonne back on top, 33-31. The Bees never trailed again.

“Everyone had their hand in this win, but not as much as Connie did,” said Bayonne head coach Jamie Turner. “I thought the first half she played as well as she did all season. Our offense wasn’t clicking and she bailed us out a couple of times. We wouldn’t have won this game if she didn’t hit some big shots, especially that three-pointer in the third quarter.”

Marist trimmed the lead back down to one, 36-35, but never got the lead back. The Knights led four times in the game, only to see Bayonne take the lead back on the very next possession.

“As a whole I thought we played pretty good defense, we just didn’t the crucial stops when we really needed them,” said Marist head coach Damel Ling. “That and we were too inconsistent offensively. We had some stretches where we played well, but not enough of them. It’s disappointing to lose this game, but I’d rather get this loss out of the way now and learn from it, rather than have it end our county tournament. We’ll see soon enough how much we learned from this game.”

Tara Flynn's hoop ended an 9-0 run that Bayonne used to open the fourth quarter.

Bayonne held a three-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, and quickly stretched it out. Rovatsos and Tara Flynn scored back-to-back baskets with the Bees scoring the first nine points of the quarter to make it 47-35.

Antoinette Blake’s layup cut Bayonne’s lead to 55-50 with 1:47 to play, but the Bees iced the game from the charity stripe. Sam Maggio hit 5 of 6 free throws in the final 90 seconds to leave Bayonne unbeaten against Hudson County opponents.

Rovatsos finished with 19 points, 15 of them in the second half, and 11 rebounds for Bayonne (12-2). Hayes had a season-high 17 points, while Maggio added 12. Denmark and Blake had 15 and 14 points, respectively, for Marist (10-3). Ashley Vazquez finished with 10 points, five assists, and four steals.

The two cross-town rivals will meet again in two weeks just before the seeding meeting for the Hudson County Tournament. Another Bayonne victory will all but lock up the top seed, something head coach Jamie Turner is well aware of.

“Our goal coming into the season was to repeat as county champs and we have a legitimate chance to do that,” added Turner. “I didn’t like at all the way we handled their pressure. But we kept our composure even when we weren’t playing at our best and we fought through it. If we keep our composure like we did tonight and hit free-throws like we did tonight, we have a chance to go far in both the counties and the states.”

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