Sunday, February 5, 2012

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Freshman Hunter DeBellis knocked down two free throws to seal Holy Angels' 33-29 win over seventh-seed Emerson in the Round of 16 at the Bergen County Tournament.

ORADELL – Over her decades of coaching winning teams, Holy Angels head coach Sue Liddy has brought teams with depth, speed and talent into the Bergen County Tournament and has had no shortage of of success. But this year the Angels were limping, figuratively and literally, in the Round of 16. Leading scorer Melanie Lockett is out for the season after tearing her ACL tear last month and this past week second-leading scorer Amanda Fields received 22 stitches above her eye and was not cleared to play in time.

It's been a long time since Liddy put a team on the floor with so little county tournament experience and even less time playing together as a unit. So she reverted back to the basics, coaching possession by possession on both ends of the floor against a gusty Emerson team that was chock full of experience.

With points at a premium, Holy Angels made the only true offensive run of the game. Spanning the second and third quarters, the Angels embarked a 12-0 spurt that gave them the lead for good. Freshman point guard Hunter DeBellis iced the game, hitting both ends of a one-and-one with 12 seconds left, to give 10th seeded Holy Angels a 33-29 victory over No. 7 Emerson in the Round of 16 game at River Dell High School.

“Every possession made a difference and without Mel or Amanda in the lineup, we had to work that much harder,” said Holy Angels’ Denise Rizzo. “We had to focus on the fundamentals because that’s what got us here.”

Deanna Eyerkuss scored all 7 of her points in the fourth quarter to help Emerson stay close.

Both teams got off to a slow start with Emerson taking a slight lead midway through the second quarter on a baseline jumper from Tara DeThomasis. But Emerson would not score again in the first half and a late layup by Cate Slepian put Holy Angels in front at the half, 13-12.

The Angels continued their charge on the first possession of the second half when Meredith Dwyer canned a three-pointer from the top of the key to make it a two-possession game. Usually that would be far from a big deal so early in the second half, but it served quite a purpose in this game as the Cavos were not able to make it a one-possession game again until midway through the fourth quarter.

Holy Angels led by as many as eight points when a DeBellis layup capped the 12-0 run for a 20-12 lead. The lead was still eight points into the fourth quarter when Emerson’s leading scorer, Deanna Eyerkuss, finally cracked the scoring column emphatically with five straight points to get Emerson to within three.

The Cavos played some stingy defense of their own to keep them within striking distance and caught a pair of breaks at the same time when Bryonna McGowan fouled out on an illegal pick and Jenna Albanese hit both ends of a one-and-one to cut the lead to two, 29-27.

Emerson attempted to trap, but Rizzo took a diagonal pass and went in for a layup to push the lead back up to four. DeThomasis cut it down to two again on a jumper with 27 seconds left. On the ensuing inbounds play, Holy Angels was able to run 15 seconds off the clock before DeBellis was finally fouled with 12 seconds left. As a freshman who does not shoot a particularly high percentage from the charity stripe, it looked like the best move possible for Emerson. But DeBellis stepped up with the poise of a senior and calmly knocked down both ends of a one-and-one to make it a two-possession game and provide the final 33-29 margin.

Denise Rizzo had 12 points and 6 rebounds for Holy Angels, which will play IHA in the quarterfinals.

“I knew the ball was going to end up in my hands and I had to make those free-throws,” said DeBellis. “All of my teammates contributed and now it was time for me to do my part. I didn’t want to let anyone down and I had to step up.”

Rizzo had 12 points and six rebounds and Slepian added 10 points for Holy Angels (11-9). DeThomasis led Emerson (16-2) with 12 points, Albanese had eight and Eyerkuss had all seven of her points in the fourth quarter. The Cavos were looking for their first-ever trip to the Bergen County quarterfinals, and one of the county’s bright young head coaches, Jenn Jurjevic, knew an opportunity slipped by.

“With two of their top players out, we knew we had a good chance to come away with a win,” said Jurjevic. “But when you have a coach like Sue (Liddy) on the other side, you have to execute every possession on both ends of the floor and capitalize on their weaknesses. I thought we did a real nice job defensively, but offensively, we were a bit flat and when we started to turn it on, it was too late.”

Lockett is done for the season, but the Angels should have Fields back for next week’s quarterfinal showdown with archrival and second-seeded IHA, an easy winner over Cresskill on Saturday. While winning next week will be a much larger task, the approach will be the same for Liddy.

“Once you get this far, if you’re going to beat anyone, every possession truly matters,” said Liddy. “I think even having a day to practice for this game knowing Amanda was likely not going to be in the lineup helped. I think this team in this game showed more pride and more heart than any other team I’ve ever coached in one particular game. We could have given up and felt sorry for ourselves a long time ago. But we’re still here, we’re still fighting, and we’re going to take it one game, one possession at a time from here on out.”

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