Holy Angels breaks Teaneck's press and breaks into county final | ||||||||||||||
MAHWAH – Either it will consume a team or a team will consume it. Any opponent going into a game against the Teaneck girls basketball team knows that it will not retreat, it will not turn down the pressure on its full court press so it is either break it or be broken by it. Holy Angels needed nearly a quarter to get used to the speed of it, but then figured out its weaknesses and the track meet that ensued was fun to watch for all five quarters of Sunday’s Bergen County Tournament semifinal. Teaneck had double up Holy Angels by scoring 18 points in the first 6:24 of the game, and trailed by nine at halftime, but once the Angels figured out that the best course of action was to go right at the press, it turned things around. It wasn’t until Melanie Locket’s 3-point play 54 seconds into overtime that Holy Angels was able to go in front for good, but Angels showed that they know how to close out a game. They made 14 of their 15 overtime free throws with Lockett going 9 for 9 as Holy Angels advanced to the Bergen County final for the second straight year with a 78-70 victory at Ramapo College. “The second half we ran the game plan the way it was supposed to be run. The first half we were kind of out of synch and I think we were a little overwhelmed. But that happens, they are kids,” said Holy Angels head coach Sue Liddy. “We kept going to the basket and I think that they got tired at some point in the third quarter.”
If Teaneck did get tired it was understandable as the Highwaywomen extended their defense 94 feet on the big college court and it may explain why the Angels were able to make their move. Teaneck was up 35-26 at halftime and led 40-32 when Jakelle King-Gilchrist made a free throw with 6:25 left in the third quarter and no one could have foreseen what was coming next. Sophomore Amanda Fields, who took her place in the starting lineup with Jillian Crawford was lost for the season to a knee injury, scored off an assist from Kasheema Besley to kick off a 16-0 Holy Angels run that took up the rest of the third quarter. Lockett, who scored a game high 31 points, closed the extended run with a 3-point play and two free throws to give AHA a 48-40 lead heading into the fourth quarter. “We started to look for the open player instead of trying to dribble through everything. You can break their press if you don’t let them intimidate you,” said Lockett, a sophomore. “They are really, really fast and we weren’t used to that kind of pace, so we just had to slow down and play our game.” Lockett scored on a fastbreak with 4:31 remaining in the fourth quarter to give the Angels a 56-50 lead, but Teaneck answered with consecutive baskets by King-Gilchrist, a 3-pointer, and Tiffany Sparks, a jumper from the corner, to draw the Highwaywomen to within one and they took their last lead of regulation at 60-59 with 1:34 to go when King-Gilchrist completed a 3-point play. But Teaneck missed four straight free throws that could have put it up by five, but instead it was steal and layup by Jaclyn Jerkovich that gave AHA a 61-60 lead with 39 seconds to play.
A Jerkovich free throw with 14 seconds left opened a two-point spread, but with its last chance, Teaneck got a putback basket from Olivia Logan to force overtime. But if there was any chance that Holy Angels would wilt, Liddy had taken care of such concerns a long time ago. “The first thing I do when we start the season is we run wall to wall in our gym to get ready for the extra five feet in each direction on the college court,” said Liddy. “I told [my team] today they we are the better conditioned team. We’ve been running all year long and we have been playing against quality teams and they really have not.” Teaneck’s Deja Gabbidon made the first field goal of the overtime on a runner from the baseline seven seconds in, but it was all Holy Angels after that and they win the game from the free throw line. Lockett’s 3-point play with 3:06 left gave the Angels the lead for good and they made 14 of 15 free throws in the overtime period, while Teaneck was 0 for 4 in the extra session. In the game, AHA made 30 of 42 from the line, but 26 of 34 after halftime while Teaneck was 15 of 30 for the game and 10 of 21 after the intermission.
Holy Angels got all of its scoring from its starting five and all of them finished in double figures. Lockett made 14 of 18 free throws in the game and all nine of her attempts in overtime on the way to her game-high 31 points. Jerkovich finished with 16 points, 11 of them after halftime, Fields added 11 points and Besley and Nicole Pepe, just back from illness, added 10 for Holy Angels. King-Gilchrist was outstanding for Teaneck, scoring a team-high 27 points as the Highwaywomen’s only double digit scorer. Arian Ijadoula added 9 points, Sparks finished with 8 and Monique Cheek and Sydni Lester each finished with 7 for Teaneck, which lost for just the second time this season and for the first time to an in-county opponent. So the county final is set as Holy Angels, the No. 3 seed, will take on top-seeded and undefeated IHA, a team it has lost to three times already this season, on Saturday at Ramapo College. “There will be no secrets, but neither team is going to be able to press on this floor. It’s just too darn big. Boys can press on this floor, I don’t think girls can very well,” said Liddy. “It’s a question of heart, energy and effort and they have all kind of listened to what I have had to say and we have moved to this point from June.” FOR MORE PHOTOS OF THIS EVENT OR TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS GAME STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com. |
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