Tuesday, March 2, 2010

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Alana Soumas hit a 3-pointer to open the scoring then hit five more for Old Tappan, which knocked off Bergenfield, 53-20, in the North 1, Group 3 state sectional playoffs.

OLD TAPPAN – For the four senior starters on the Old Tappan girls basketball team, time is running short. The Golden Knights came into the season hoping to come away with a trophy or two, whether it was a league title, a county championship, a state sectional title or some kind of combination of the three.

But after missing out on a share of the NBIL-Division 1 title by a single game and after a heartbreaking loss to Holy Angels in the quarterfinals of the Bergen County Tournament, the North 1, Group 3 state sectional tournament that started on Monday represents the Knights’ last shot at some hardware.

“Losing the league was tough because if Paramus Catholic won against Pascack Valley [this past Saturday] we would have shared the league title, but that didn’t happen and that game against Holy Angels still bothers me,” said Karli McMenamin, one of Old Tappan’s four senior starters. “We know that this is our last chance. There is no other tournament coming up that we can say, ‘OK, we’ll go after that.’ This is the last straw and we all have our sights set on the state sectional.”

Ashley Marfo had 6 points to lead Bergenfield.

Old Tappan used it renewed focus and the shooting of another one of its senior starters, Alana Soumas, to score the first 11 points of the game on the way to a comfortable 53-20 win and the North 1, Group 3 quarterfinals. The Knights, the No. 5 seed, will visit No. 4 Jefferson on Wednesday.

Soumas scored the first points of the game on a three-pointer just 16 seconds in to give Old Tappan the lead for good, but she was just getting started. She made a career-high six three-pointers in the game and finished with a career high 18 points, all of them from behind the arc and 12 of them in the third quarter.

“It was senior night, it was our last home game and we all came out trying our hardest because we didn’t want this to be our last game of the season,” said Soumas, OT’s starting shooting guard. ”I hit my first one, I missed a couple after that, but after halftime I kind of got in a groove. I was open because my teammates were moving the ball well and I just had to catch and shoot.”

Soumas was open because Bergenfield went to a zone, a defensive tactic that Old Tappan doesn’t often see, especially in the NBIL’s Division 1 for obvious reasons.

Karli McMenamin finished with 9 points for Old Tappan, which improved to 19-6 on the season.

“They jumped out and played us zone and they were kind of tilting it toward [Shannon] Funsch a little bit to keep her from getting any good looks and Alana cashed in on it,” said Old Tappan head coach Brian Dunn. “She can shoot and that is why people normally don’t play too much zone against us.”

Old Tappan had it going in all phases right from the get-go as it held Bergenfield without a point through the first 7:28 of the game and shared the ball in building its lead. Soumas, Funsch, Alex Radetzky and freshman point guard Megan Reilly all scored at least one basket in the Knights game-opening 11-0 run and they led 13-4 after one quarter. Soumas’ second three-pointer gave her team a 22-8 lead and McMenamin’s short jumper from the baseline gave the Knights a 24-8 lead at halftime.

“Defensively we got off to a good start,” said Dunn. “We made it difficult for them to get easy looks and that was the key.”

Old Tappan did not allow double digit scoring in any quarter and pushed its lead to 20 points for the first time at 30-10 when McMenamin scored inside 1:30 into the second half. The Knights closed the third quarter up 43-15 and then emptied the bench.

Jessi Corredor and Bergenfield finished up at 11-13.

Soumas’ 18 points led all scorers and Old Tappan got all but three of its points from its starting five. Radetzky scored 8 of her 12 points in the first half to help the Knights pull away; McMenamin scored 9 points with five of those coming from the free throw line; Reilly finished with 7 points and Funsch hit a couple of field goals.

Ashley Marfo’s three field goals were the most for Bergenfield, while Jessi Corredor, Krystal Carvajal and Shana Rivera each added 4 points. Crystal Johnson had the other field goal for the Bears, whose season came to an end with an 11-13 record.

And while the 2009-10 campaign came to an end with two straight disappointing losses, Bergenfield had plenty to be proud of. The Bears finished just one win short of their first league championship since 1985; they qualified for the state tournament and gave IHA a scare in the opening round of the Bergen County Tournament.

More importantly, Bergenfield has been a competitive program under the guidance of head coach Erik Olsen and he is looking forward to things to come.

Megan Reilly and Old Tappan will face Jefferson in the North 1, Group 3 quarterfinals.

“I think the transition is underway and by that I mean for next year we have three or four girls coming in that are playing AAU. Not that AAU is everything, but what it means that of the girls I have coming back next year, 11 of them will be playing in the summer. That shows commitment,” said Olsen. “Offensively I have all of my top five leading scorers coming back and I am already looking forward to next year.”

There will be time to reflect for the Old Tappan seniors whenever the season ends, but right now is not that time.

“This is a really good group of kids. They are hard working kids and they really love basketball. We’ve had a strong season all the way through, but we are about three points away from this being a great season to this point,” said Dunn. “I think that we are really looking to bear down for the next couple of games and play as well as we can play. We’ll see where that gets us.”

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