Friday, March 12, 2010

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Terry Ely scored a game-high 17 points for Pascack Valley, which methodically took apart Cranford in a 40-28 win in the Group 3 state semifinals on Thursday night.

FRANKLIN LAKES -- It was a run-of-the-mill layup off a hard drive to the basket that Pascack Valley's Terry Ely made, it gave her team just a four-point lead and there was still 13 minutes to play in Thursday night Group 3 state final, but it was obvious to anyone that has seen the Indians play this season that Cranford was in real trouble. There is no team in North Jersey and few, if any, in the state better at protecting with a two-possession lead, no matter what the clock says, better than Pascack Valley and, as crazy as it sounds, the game was already all but over.

With the four-point cushion Pascack Valley was free to employ its deliberate offense that includes running the weave between its four ball-handlers – Ely, Lindsey Hickey, Chelsea Lombardi and the tandem of Kristen Petro and Alyssa Matos – unimpeded. The only way to stop it for the team that is trailing is to foul and send the Indians, a solid free throw shooting team, to the line or take chances defensively that leaves lanes to the basket that the Indians are adept at exploiting.

Cranford, the Central Jersey Group 3 champion, found that out the hard way as Pascack Valley put on a clinic in how to play basketball with a lead, without a shot clock and without the three-point line in a 40-28 win that puts the Indians in the Group 3 state final at the Ritacco Center in Toms River this weekend. Pascack Valley did not make a single three-pointer in the game nor did it attempt one.

Kaitlin McGowan was Cranford's only player to make as many as three field goals.

“Our four guards and [center] Dana [Amato], we all trust each other with the ball. We practice so hard every day that it just comes second nature to us. We practice so hard that we know when we get the ball that it is going to be a great possession,” said Hickey. “When we got the lead I saw them getting frustrated just by some of the fouls they committed and I could see it in their faces.”

The basket that Ely made with 5:00 left in the third quarter gave Pascack Valley a 19-15 advantage, the free throw she made 20 seconds later pushed it to a five-point lead. Cranford’s frustration became obvious in a couple of ways, the first of which showed up when one of its players was called for a technical foul for the choice words she had for a referee. Ely made another free throw and Pascack Valley went about its business of running time off the clock and limiting the Cougars’ chances to get back in the game.

“That’s what we do. I just told the kids [in the postgame huddle] ‘look around us right now. You don’t see a 6-3 kid, you don’t see somebody who is a jet with the ball, we have no Division 1 players on this team,” said Pascack Valley head coach Jeff Jasper. “But somehow, by just being hard workers and when that doesn’t work we work harder, we are going to the Ritacco Center.”

Despite the fact that its largest lead of the third quarter was only six points after Hickey scored on drive to make it 23-17, Pascack Valley never let Cranford get within one possession after Ely made that decisive basket. The Indians led 25-21 heading into the fourth quarter and then methodically pulled away. After Ely made two free throws to give her team a 29-33 lead with 6:11 to play, Pascack Valley established a new biggest lead with all of the next eight points that were scored in the game.

PV's Lindsey Hickey scored 9 points, including making 5 of her 6 free throw attempts.

Matos turned the corner and made a layup to made it an eight-point advantage, Hickey his both ends of a one-and-one to give the Indians their first double digit lead of the game at 33-23, Ely scored in the post to make it a 12-point lead and Amato made it a 14-point bulge at 37-23 when she made both of her bonus free throws with 2:12 to play.

Over that same stretch Cranford missed six straight shots, all of them early in its possessions as it tried to get back in the game with home runs instead of one single at a time. The Cougars were held to one-shot-and-out each time.

“The biggest key was that we really focused on all of the small details like rebounding and playing defense. The small things that got us to the free throw line,” said Ely, who never gives the defense a break as when she is not dribbling it in circles, she is breaking it down with aggressive drives on good angles. “It hasn’t really sunk in yet [that we are going to the Ritacco Center]. It’s just a great accomplishment to get that far. I wouldn’t say that we ever thought we would get there, but I don’t think we ever doubted ourselves, either. Not many people thought we would get there, but we work hard every day in practice, we focus on the small things like I said and those things build up over time.”

Pascack Valley did a lot of its offensive damage from the free throw line where it was 16 of 24 as a team and 13 of 16 in the second half. Cranford was granted just 6 free throws in the game, made 4 of them and the discrepancy in attempts is directly attributable to the facts that Pascack Valley had the ball most of the time, took few if any shots that were not of the quality variety and Cranford, which did not reach double digits in any of the four quarters, was left to shoot quickly and from long range.

Morgan Miller (7 points) tied for team-high honors for Cranford, which finished the season with a 20-8 record.

No Cranford player had more than three field goals in the game. Kaitlin McGowan and Morgan Miller each finished with 7 points to share team-high honors, while Taylor D’Antico and Jamie Webb each had five. Jess McCoy’s two field goals accounted for the other 4 points for the Cougars, who finished their season with a 20-8 record.

Ely (17 points, 9 of 14 FTs) was the game’s lone double digit scorer, while Hickey finished with 9 points that included 5 made free throws in 6 attempts. Amato (8 points) did just enough inside to keep the defense honest and Matos (4 points) and Chelsea Lombardi (2 points) rounded out the scoring for Pascack Valley, which improved to 26-4 and, along with IHA, is one of only two North Jersey teams with at least one game remaining on its schedule.

The Ritacco Center is a long way from where the Indians started.

“I am going to give you a quote from a coach who e-mailed this morning and he doesn’t need to be named. But he said ‘I saw you guys at camp this summer at Boston College and I really felt sorry for you,” said Jasper, whose team has had other teams scratching their heads all season as it won the outright NBIL-Division 1 title and the North 1, Group 3 state section. “This team has magic going on because are we better than all of these teams we’ve beat? You watch the two teams warm up and you’d always put your money on the other team, there is no doubt about it.”

In that case, it is a good thing that, unlike in wrestling, the state girls basketball tournament is not played in Atlantic City.

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