Sunday, February 19, 2012

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Kiana Briggs helped Passaic County Tech to a 36-26 win over Eastern Christian in the Passaic County Tournament semifinals. THe Bulldogs will play Wayne Hills in next week's final.

WAYNE – For a successful team to run smoothly, players have to identify their roles and adapt to them. The scorers are supposed to score, the point guards are supposed to distribute and the wing players are supposed to do a little bit of everything. Often lost in that shuffle is the post player who is content playing defense and doing all the dirty work inside with not much in the way of stats to show for it. For Passaic County Tech, that is sophomore forward Kierona Morton.

Her role expanded in Saturday’s Passaic County semifinals, but not because she was getting more touches on the offensive end. It was because her assignment was to guard Eastern Christian’s 6-foot-6 junior center Michelle Van Dyke; the same Van Dyke who had 26 points, 20 rebounds, and 10 blocks in an upset over Kennedy in the quarterfinals.

Morton embraced the job and held Van Dyke to a season-low four points as third-seeded PCT won a defensive battle to move into the Passaic County Tournament final with a 36-26 semifinal victory.

“Eastern Christian beat a good team last week, so we knew not to look past them,” said Morton. “I was both excited and nervous for the challenge of trying to guard (Van Dyke) because I never played against a player like her. I knew my teammates had my back and I just tried to get good positioning on her to make it tough for her to catch the ball.”

Eastern Christian got off to a hot start with a pair of layups from Abby Kuder and a jumper from Carly Veenstra to take an 8-1 lead. PCT responded with an 11-0 spurt with five of those points coming from Nikia Richardson. The Eagles got back to within one on a three-pointer from Kristen Traub, but found themselves down six at the half, 19-13.

Carly Veenstra finished with 11 points for Eastern Christian.

The Eagles got a layup from Van Dyke to cut their deficit to four, 26-22, with less than five minutes to play, but the Bulldogs got two big baskets from Richardson and Kiana Briggs and they were never threatened the rest of the way.

“I thought we played well defensively, we just had way too many turnovers and it cost us in the end,” said Eastern Christian head coach Barry Veenstra. “We haven’t seen anything like the pressure and the athleticism that PCT showed us today. The effort was there, we just didn’t make enough plays to go on a run and put the pressure back on them.”

Briggs and Richardson led all scorers with 12 points apiece for Passaic County Tech (13-4). Veenstra had 11 points and Traub chipped in with seven for Eastern Christian (17-4).

No matter who wins next week’s Passaic County final, it will be a long time coming. PCT has not won a county title since 1984. The Bulldogs’ opponent, fifth-seeded Wayne Hills, an upset winner over top-seeded and defending champion DePaul, has not won a title since 1982. The game will be played at Wayne Valley High School on Saturday with tip-off at 2:30 P.M.

Even though playing for a county title will be on the back of the minds of everyone involved, PCT head coach Ron Williams wants his team to stay grounded and focus on the task at hand.

“We are excited to play for a county championship, but we have to look towards Wayne Valley on Tuesday first,” said Williams. “We have gotten into a good routine and we don’t want to get out of it just because we’re playing in the county final. But we’re excited that we’re finally here and all the pieces are starting to come together.”

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