Wednesday, February 15, 2012

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

On Senior Night, Kasey Woetzel scored a game-high 23 points for Ramapo, which improved to a 17-5 on the season by beating Paramus. 51-34, in Franklin Lakes.

FRANKLIN LAKES – After four years of unprecedented success in the history of the program, it was assumed that the Ramapo girls basketball team would take a step back to the pack when 90 percent of its scoring walked out the door on graduation day last June. But through 22 games it has certainly been hard to tell the difference between a rebuilding season and another in a long line of successful ones.
 
With a 54-31 win over Paramus on Senior Night in Franklin Lakes, Ramapo improved to 17-5 on the season. It has earned a first round home game in the North 1, Group 3 state sectional tournament and was still alive in the race for a league title. The Green Raiders will play Northern Highlands on Thursday was a chance to grab a piece of first place.
 
“Graduating 90 percent of my scoring with only one returning starter, this group has done a great job. To be in a position this late in the season where we are still focused on trying to get a share of a league title says a lot of how far we have come,” said Ramapo head coach Sandy Gordon. “Were we disappointed to be knocked out of the county [tournament in the Round of 16]? Definitely. For us and the success we had there in the past couple of years, that was surprising, but now we are focused on trying to grab a share of the league, making a run in the states even though we are on the tough side of the bracket with Teaneck and just enjoying the stretch run with this group.”

Sophomore Brittany Stone scored 21 of Paramus' 31 points.

Ramapo certainly enjoyed the festivities on Tuesday night as it fielded a starting five consisting solely of seniors, three more than the usual compliment, and hung in there early until taking the lead for good at 10-8 when Mara Bunting scored the final basket of the first quarter.
 
“It was great to see all five of the seniors on the court together and to get to cheer them on from the bench. I know I will be in tears when it is my senior night, so I know that those girls enjoyed being out there together,” said Kaityln Amato, a junior and regular starter who made her entry into the game around the four minutes mark. “And they did a great job. We needed to get off to a good start and they gave us that.”
 
It was a baseline drive by Tori Woetzel that got Ramapo all even a 8 with 41 seconds to go in the first quarter and it was that basket that kicked off a kicked off a 16-0 run that took the home team from down two to up 22-8 with 3:25 to play in the second quarter and the Raiders built a 28-13 lead by halftime.
 
It was the kind of run that Scott Papetti has seen plenty of in his first season as the Paramus head coach and it is part of the growing pains that come with trying to build a program from the ground up. Sophomore Brittany Stone scored a team-high 21 points, but the rest of the Spartans combined to scored 10. Stephanie Hwang scored all five of her points in the first quarter, Dara Devaney made a free throw and a field goal in the second half and Ashley Dunne had the other two Paramus points.

Junior Kaitlyn Amato (13 points, 12 rebounds) had one of Ramapo's two double-doubles.

“Tonight it was Brittany against Ramapo. She put up 21, but she couldn’t do it all herself and we just did nothing on defense. We were standing still and allowed them to run through the lane untouched,” said Papetti, whose team fell to 7-12 on the season. “We have played some of the better teams so well, and at other times like tonight we just have not played well and sometimes I wonder what team is going to show up. It’s part of the process I guess.”
 
Paramus was still hanging around late in the third quarter when Stone scored on the fastbreak with 28 seconds left to draw her team to within 26-23, but JK McAvoy scored off a backdoor cut and a technical foul called against the first season on Paramus bench between the third and fourth quarters led to two Kasey Woetzel free throws. Those were the first four points of a 16-0 Ramapo run that put the game away.

Two Green Raiders finished with double-doubles as Kasey Woetzel scored a game-high 23 points to go with her 11 rebounds and Amato had 13 points and 12 boards.McAvoy finished with 8, Bunting added a free throw to her first quarter field goal, Karoline Intriago and Marina Pappas each made field goals and Gina Ventura had Ramapo’s other point.
 
It’s going to get a lot tougher for Ramapo from here as it tries to knock off Highlands for the first time in three tries this season before it starts to focus on the state tournament. While Paramus is seeded 16th and will visit top-seeded Jefferson in the opening round, Ramapo is seeded seventh in North 1, Group 3 and will host No. 10 Garfield in the opening round with second-seeded Teaneck likely to be waiting in the quarterfinals. Teaneck has ended Ramapo’s season in the state tournament in each of the last three years.
 
“We lost to Highlands the first two times we played them, but the last time we played them we only lost by five and I think that is going to be a good game. We won it last year and my freshman year and it is nice that we still have a chance to do it again,” said Kasey Woetzel, who will play next season at Division 2 Holy Family College.  “And if we see Teaneck in the states I will be excited to play them. The last three years they have ended our season, so maybe this year it will turn out different.”

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