Friday, February 5, 2010

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Moriah Sweeney and Ramsey ended a nine game losing streak and Northern Highlands' state tournament hopes with 49-45 victory.

RAMSEY – For Ramsey seniors Tabitha Larsen and Moriah Sweeney, the beginning of their senior season was filled with plenty of promise. Off to a 4-0 start with one-point wins over Mahwah and Dumont, the Rams had high aspirations of a NBIL Division 2 title and berths in both the county and state tournaments. But then injuries and an unforgiving schedule resulted in an eight-game losing streak that dashed those hopes.

With a Northern Highlands team desperate for a win to keep its state tourney hopes alive, Larsen and Sweeney showed that although their visions of the season have been altered, their spirit and their desire to win had not wavered.

Sweeney blocked a late game-tying shot attempt and Larsen iced the game with a pair of free throws with three seconds left as Ramsey snapped a nine-game losing streak and dealt a fatal blow to Highlanders’ state playoff hopes with a 49-45 victory on Thursday at Ramsey High School.

“We’ve lost quite a few games in a row and we really wanted to win this one,” said Larsen. “Moriah (Sweeney) and I have been here since we were freshmen, and we had to step up. Our whole team stepped up and everyone made big plays in the fourth quarter.”

Ramsey got off to a hot start and was in control for most of the first half. The Lady Rams led by as many as nine points, 20-11, on a Jill Padovano layup to start the second quarter. But the lead they had throughout the first half disappeared in a hurry.

Highlands' Tara Corbett hit a three-pointer with 2:48 to play to give her team a 43-39 lead.

Melanie Green hit a 15-foot baseline jumper at the first-half buzzer to cap 7-0 run in the final 1:24 to knot the score at 27.

“We felt we let an opportunity slip away there and we had to make up for it,” said Ramsey head coach Shannon McGarrigle. “We’ve been through this situation before and we handled it much better tonight. In the second half, we made a point to take care of the ball every possession.”

Northern Highlands’ Arista Meneve scored off a pass from Jackie Reyneke to tie the game at 37-37 heading into the fourth quarter. The Highlanders appeared as if they were going to pull away when Tara Corbett hit a three-pointer with 2:48 to play to give her team a 43-39 lead. Although they were out of practice in winning close games, the Rams quickly banded together in reminding each other how to do it.

They pulled into a tie on two free-throws by Sweeney before grabbing their first lead of the fourth quarter with just under a minute to play. Padovano skied over two Highlanders to grab an offensive rebound, and then hit Bridget Gaffney underneath for a layup and a 47-45 lead with 58 seconds to play.

Northern Highlands had a shot with 10 seconds left, but it was blocked by Sweeney and Larsen was eventually fouled with three seconds left. She nailed both ends of a one-and-one to erase the long losing streak and notch Ramsey’s first victory in exactly a month (46-39 over Northern Valley/Demarest).

Ramsey improved to 5-9 on the season.

“This win feels good, but it’s more of a relief than anything else,” said Sweeney, a talented forward who has battled the injury bug throughout her scholastic career. “We needed this win for our confidence. We knew that we could win close games like this, we just had to execute and play good defense. Winning and losing streaks start with one game and it’s nice to get back to winning games. It’s been a tough year, but this is definitely one of the bright spots.”

Larsen led all scorers with 14 points, including 4 of 8 from beyond the three-point line for Ramsey (5-9). Sweeney played the entire fourth quarter for the first time this season and finished with 12 points. Padovano added nine points, while Alyssa Burkard and Gaffney each had six. Tori Balzano led the way for the Northern Highlands (6-9) with 13 points. Reyneke and Corbett had nine points apiece.

The role of spoiler was not on the minds of the Ramsey players. Yesterday’s game was more about enjoying the feeling of walking off victorious and how precious that feeling can be. Especially to the seniors who have put in the time for four years to get to this point.

“I feel happy for the kids, especially (Larsen and Sweeney),” added McGarrigle. “We always seem to make things interesting, but we pulled it together and played our best in the final three minutes or so. As tough as things have been for our team lately, we never put our heads down. We kept playing hard and we made some plays down the stretch. It’s nice to play so hard and finally pull out a win, and do it against a good team.”

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