Friday, December 30, 2011

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Kellie Lane scored a game-high 23 points, which held off Tenafly, 50-48, in the final of the Garfield Holiday Tournament on Thursday.

GARFIELD – For an opponent to be successful against the Ridgefield Park girls basketball team, it must pay plenty of attention to Katherine Haines, the 6-foot-2 sophomore who can dominate from the post and on the offensive glass. A first glance at her final output of points on Thursday night in the final of the Garfield Holiday Tournament, suggested that Tenafly did a solid job against Haines, who finished with just five points.

But that does not tell the whole story as Haines can affect a game in many other ways beside throwing the ball through the basket. She commands double teams which plays right into her greatest strength, her feel for the game. Passing out of traffic is not something that Haines has to be told, it is instead a natural reaction for a player who knows where her teammates are, where they are going and how to get them the ball. '

In one 51 second span of the third quarter, Haines assisted on three straight Ridgefield Park baskets, one of them a touch pass to Kellie Lane in transition. If you need her to block a shot, she can do that to. Haines swatted away Tenafly's desperation try to win at the buzzer as Ridgefield Park held on for a 50-48 win and the tournament title.

After early foul trouble, Tenafly's Jackie Clifford scored 8 of her 10 points in the fourth quarter.

“She is not just some tall, 6-foot-2 girl who can score. She is probably the best athlete we have, she understands the game probably better than anybody else and she does it on both ends,” said Ridgefield Park head coach Chris Blessing. “We've had some big wins this year and they have all been predicated around our defense and with her up top [of the 1-3-1 zone] with her 6-foot-2 frame is tough for the opposition. She had a huge block at the end, she does it all for us.”

But Haines left the scoring in the second half up to her teammates against Tenafly and Kellie Lane was happy to pick up the slack. The junior scored 19 of her game-high 23 points after halftime and the Scarlets needed everyone of them as Tenafly, playing shorthanded, answered every time it looked Ridgefield Park was going to establish a comfortable lead.

The game was tied at 10 after one quarter, Tenafly, playing without Haley Finnerty for the whole game and Jackie Clifford for long stretches after early foul trouble, led 20-17 at the half. Those three straight assists by Haines and two were a part of the 8-2 run that RP used to take a 33-28 lead and it was up 35-30 when Star Kontogiannis made a jumper from the wing to close the third quarter.

Katherine Haines drew a lot of attention in the post, but did her damage with the pass.

But Clifford got in a groove early in the fourth quarter, scoring once off an inbounds play and then on the fastbreak and Samantha Henderson followed with a jumper from the wing to give Tenafly one of the two-point leads it would hold in the final six minutes of the game. Clifford used a screen by Josette Norris to get free for a layup that put the Tigers up 38-37 with 5:26 to go.

Ridgefield Park wrested the lead back with two free throws from Stephanie DeBari, a transfer back from Paramus Catholic, and Julie Rovito's putback of her own missed shot. The Scarlets by one to three points for the next 2:30 Lanie Shalek scored off an assist from Eryn Henderson that tied the game at 46 with 1:48 to play. A missed Tenafly free throw turned into a fastbreak the other way as DeBari beat the defense down the floor to give Ridgefield Park the lead for good at 48-46 with 1:39 to play.

“We were definitely tested. We knew from the beginning that we had to start strong and play as a team. We had a lot of great passing and we weren't selfish with the ball,” said Lane, a junior. “Tenafly was very quick, they were smart and they are scrappy, which was good for us because we needed to work on getting on the floor and diving after balls because we knew they were going to.”

The teams then traded turnovers before Haines again assisted on the fastbreak to put RP up 50-46 with just under one minute to play. But the door was still open a crack when Norris made both ends of a one-and-one and Ridgefield part missed the front end with 14.5 seconds to play, but Tenafly's last possession bogged down and resulted in the forced 3-pointer that Haines swatted away.

Eryn Henderson scored 9 points for Tenafly, which fell to 3-2 on the season.

“At the end we had no timeouts left, but we did say it in the previous timeout that if they make [the front end of the one-and-one] that we had to go for a 3, if not we could drive and look for the two. It just didn't happen,” said Tenafly head coach Jeff Koehler. “Everything worked out the way we wanted with the missed foul shot, but we just have to go back to work on Monday and get more comfortable with those situations. I am proud of my girls, they worked really hard and they were right there at the end with a very good team that has one of the best players in the county. We get Ridgefield Park again two weeks from now and we know what we have to work on.

Samantha Henderson finished with a team high 14 points for Tenafly, while Clifford was brilliant in the fourth quarter when she scored 8 of her 10 points. Eryn Henderson and and Shalek each finished with 9 points and Norris added 6 for Tenafly (3-2), which got all of its scoring from its starting 5.

Lane's 23 points led all scorers and DeBari finished with 12. Rovito (6 points), Haines (5 points) and Kontogiannis (4 points) rounded out the scoring as Ridgefield Park also got all of its points from its starting five, which has only one senior (Kontogiannis) in it.

The Scarlets are young, they are unbeaten (5-0) and they have high hopes for the rest of this season.

“We have great chemistry on and off the floor and that really helps with our game,” said Haines. “[Winning this tournament] gives us confidence to move further along in the counties and the states. That is what we are shooting for.”

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