Monday, March 1, 2010

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Tara Flynn helped Bayonne get off to a quick start and then close out Bayonne's 39-33 won over Lincoln and the Bees' second straight Hudson County championship.

JERSEY CITY – Bayonne sophomore Tara Flynn is admittedly a basketball gym rat, someone who is constantly working on ways to make herself a better player and ways to improve her own game with the end goal of making her team better. As a guard who is known for her ability to both handle the ball well and harass the opposing team’s point guard, Flynn often will pass up a shot to try and get a teammates a better one.

But in Sunday’s Hudson County championship game against Lincoln, head coach Jamie Turner gave Flynn the green light to shoot at will. She did and the Bees were off and running from the opening tap.

Flynn hit a three-pointer in the midst of a game-opening 14-1 run. She then had two steals and hit two free-throws in the game’s final minutes as Bayonne topped Lincoln in the Hudson County title game for the second straight year with a 39-33 victory over the Lady Lions at the Yanitelli Center on the campus of St. Peter’s College in Jersey City.

Zierra Williams had nine points and 10 rebounds to lead third-seeded Lincoln.

“It is not usually my style, but I had to look for my shot a bit more today,” said Flynn. “I usually like to use a pump-fake and then drive to the basket. But they were playing off of me and not going for my pump-fake, so I had to pull the trigger. After the first three-pointer I hit, I started to gain more confidence to take the outside shot. I know what a well-balanced offense we have and that my teammates would pick me up if my shot was off.”

Connie Hayes helped the Bees get off to a quick start in their semifinal win over St. Anthony’s and got off to another fast start against Lincoln. The senior guard scored the Bees’ first four points of the game.

Bayonne also got quality minutes off the bench from Luisa Montalvo. She had two first-quarter steals and scored on a driving layup as Bayonne scored 14 of the game’s first 15 points. Hayes scored all of her seven points in the first period, including a buzzer-beating three-pointer to put Bayonne ahead, 17-5.

Lincoln got baskets from Zierra Williams and Sharmane Rhodes in a 7-0 spurt that cut the lead down to five, 17-12. The Bees answered back with a 10-3 run to close the half. Montalvo scored on another drive to the basket and Flynn nailed her third three-pointer of the first half to push Bayonne’s lead back up to double-digits, 27-15.

Senior guard Connie Hayes scored the Bees’ first four points of the game.

“This game was pretty intense for both teams and we just had to find a way to win,” said Bayonne senior Sam Maggio. “In the fourth quarter, I felt like we made some good decisions and got into a flow with our offense. I mean all five players who were on the floor (yesterday) played in last year’s game against Lincoln in the title game too. That experience definitely gave us an advantage. I think we all felt confident in ourselves and each other that we would get the job done.”

Bayonne’s last double-digit lead came at 33-23 on Flynn’s pull-up jumper near the end of the third quarter. With nothing to lose, the Lions fearlessly gambled on defense and went to the basket hard on the other end. Rhodes made a steal and converted a layup, then Shaquanna Bates followed with a pair of free-throws to trim the lead all the way down to four, 33-29, with 4:36 to play, which was the closest the game had been since the opening minute.

But after Bates’ second free-throw, Flynn went to inbound the ball and it was accidentally knocked out of her hand by a Lincoln player trying to defend the inbound pass. While not on purpose, the result was correctly called a technical foul. Flynn hit one of two free throws and did so again on the ensuing possession. Maggio gave the Bees some breathing room on an elbow jumper with less than three minutes to play for a 37-29 lead.

Nhire Adams and Lincoln fell to 15-8 on the season.

Lincoln never got closer than six points the rest of the way and Flynn canned a pair of free-throws to clinch the Bees second straight Hudson County title, both coming in nearly identical fashion over Lincoln.

“This game was almost a mirror-image of last year,” said Lincoln head coach Tommy Best. “We fell behind early and had too much ground to make up in the end. Our guard play has been one of our strengths all year and today their guards just outplayed ours. We couldn’t allow them to get on a big run. The fact that they got a big run right at the start of the game really took a lot out of us.”

Flynn was effective defensively as she was effective on the offensive end for Bayonne (20-5). She had a game-high 15 points to go along with five steals and three assists, not to mention causing numerous turnovers with her pressure defense. The Bees also got stellar defense from Maggio (8 points, 4 assists) and Kerrie Kosakowski.

Zierra Williams had nine points and 10 rebounds to lead third-seeded Lincoln (15-8). Rhodes finished eight points and six rebounds.

Sam Maggio's jumper with less than three minutes to play gave Bayonne a 37-29 lead.

The Bees have now won back-to-back titles and have a legitimate chance to repeat with Flynn, Rovatsos, and Kosakowski all returning next year. However, that is far from the mind of Bayonne head coach Jamie Turner. He is just happy he got to watch his team, especially his seniors come through in the clutch.

“I’m more happy with our fourth quarter than I have been with any quarter we have played this season,” said Turner. “We still made some mistakes, but we never got rattled. If you told me that Lincoln would hold our two leading scorers (Lisa Rovatsos and Connie Hayes) to just two points combined in the final three quarters, I would be really worried. But as Lisa and Connie have stepped up for us all year long, our other players had their back. When it was time to settle down and play smart basketball in the fourth quarter, we did it very well. We gave ourselves a goal before the season to repeat as county champs and now we’ve done it.”

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