Monday,
January 26, 2015
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
|
Christine Woods scored 10 of her 14 points in the second half for River Dell, which held off Ridgefield Park, 38-36, in the opening round of the Bergen County Tournament. |
ORADELL – Because River Dell has been without its point guard Kristen Wozniak, who is close but not yet ready to return from a sprained ankle, and because its senior captain and other starting guard, Jeanna Cappolla, was not feeling well and unable to play heavy minutes, the Golden Hawks figured to be vulnerable to on-the-ball pressure in the opening round of the Bergen County Tournament.
Ridgefield Park would love to have pursued that option for the whole game, but was weary considering what it has learned through the first month of the season. Without the kind of depth necessary to absorb foul trouble that can be the byproduct of aggressive defense as it has learned through experience of piling up fouls, the Scarlets thought it best to sit back in the halfcourt 1-3-1 until they could measure how the game was going to be called.
River Dell spent the first half building a lead with its halfcourt sets and the second half trying to hang on against Ridgefield Park's all out assault, which lasted right until the final buzzer. The Scarlets held River Dell scoreless over the final 5:33 of the game and had a look at a 3-pointer from the corner with time about to expire, but when it came up short, 14th-seeded River Dell snuck out of its own home with a 38-36 victory and a spot in the Round of 16 against No. 3 Immaculate Conception.
“I didn't know that Cappolla wasn't going to be able to play. She gave it a go, but she was clearly not feeling well and Wozniak is still out, so we were really inexperienced in the backcourt. When they started with the pressure we kind of threw the ball all over the place,” said River Dell head coach Lou Wejnert. “We just had a good 20- point win against [Ridgefield Park] at their place on Tuesday, but there were a ton of fouls called in that game. Tonight it wasn't like that.”
|
Ridgefield Park's Samantha Rinaldi scored a game-high 18. |
The Golden Hawks held Ridgefield Park to just five first half field goals and through the first 14:52 of the game, Madeline Weber was matching the Scarlets point for point. Weber had six of River Dell's eight first quarter points and scored off the offensive glass 4:07 into the second quarter to give her 10 for the game and her team an 18-7 lead. River Dell was up 20-10 after Christine Woods scored on a turn-around jumper before Samantha Rinaldi hit a 3 from the wing to get Ridgefield Park back to within 20-13 at the break.
The game was called loosely, and consistently so, throughout. So when Ridgefield Park head coach Nicole Pucciarelli realized that she had plenty of fouls to give in the second half, she turned up the heat. Kerri Tellian opened the third quarter with a 3-pointer from the wing and then made a steal at midcourt and went in for the uncontested layup that put to rest any thoughts of a second easy win in a week for River Dell.
“We were sitting in a zone, packing it in in the first half because we were afraid of fouls. We've been in a lot of foul trouble all year, but not tonight and in the second half I was able to put the press on,” said Pucciarelli. “There were not a lot of fouls called and that is what's crazy. Some nights you can't even touch a girls and tonight they let the girls play. I much prefer it this way because a lot of our offense comes from our defense and we struggle in our sets.”
|
Caton Henderson scored 8 points for River Dell, which will face No. 3
Imm. Conception in the Round of 16. |
Ridgefield Park had a chance to pull even down 22-20 and with two free throws, but made just one. And while they hung in there there rest of the way, the Scarlets never got closer as Woods proved unstoppable inside in the second half every time River Dell was able to get her the ball. Woods scored a team-high 14 points and she also had game-highs of 11 rebounds and four blocked shots playing aggressively inside.
“I just felt like I wasn't playing to my full potential in the first and I had to come out and start doing things a little bit quicker. You have to be physical to win these games. It's the county tournament,” said Woods, a junior forward. “You can't underestimate any team. We beat them last time, but it might have just been a bad game for them or a good game for us, but that game didn't mean anything tonight and we just had to play hard and hold on.”
Caton Henderson's putback gave River Dell a six-point lead after three quarters and Woods got free off an inbounds play to open the fourth quarter scoring to put her team up 38-30 with 5:33 to play, but those were the last points that the Hawks scored in the game. They missed the front end off all three one-and-one opportunities that they earned and the Scarlets made just enough big shots to make it interesting.
Rinaldi made two fourth quarter 3-pointers, the second of which brought RP to within 38-36, but neither team scored over the final 3:12 of the game with the Scarlets getting the last chance, the open look from the corner that came up just short.
|
Ashley Castillo scored 7 points for Ridgefield Park, which fell to 8-6 on the season. |
Rinaldi, who scored a game-high 18 points, was the only Scarlet to finish in double figures. Ashley Castillo added 7 points, Tellian scored all 5 of hers in that early third quarter spurt and Sinclair, Dorian Capurso and Cassie Cruz each made a field goal for Ridgefield Park (8-6), which hurt itself on the free throw line by making just 2 of 8 attempts as a team.
Free throws were hard to come by for both teams as River Dell, facing heavy pressure over the final 16 minutes only got to the line six times. The Hawks did not shoot a first half free throw and were just 2 of 6 from the stripe in the game. Woods had 10 of her game-high 14 in the second half, Weber scored 10 of her 12 points in the first half and Henderson scored all of her 8 points in the middle two quarters. Cappolla, in limited minutes, scored the other 4 points for River Dell, which improved to 12-3 and earned the shot at Immaculate Conception in the Round of 16.
“We have to play a lot better than we did tonight if we want to give ourselves a chance. We need to get healthy. We hope to have [Wozniak] back and we are looking at two days of rest [because of the snow] and that will help Cappolla get over whatever she has,” said Wejnert. “The other kids gave great effort tonight, I put a couple of freshman in there tonight and did a lot of screaming and yelling, but hopefully this experience helps and we continue to get better.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS GAME. TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT
OF THIS STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com. |