Sunday, December 28, 2014

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Meghan Lewis scored 18 points from the point guard spot and distributed the ball well in Demarest's 60-37 win over Midland Park in the Westwood Holiday Tournament.

WESTWOOD – The natural sound of a pregame layup line is usually some rhythmic clapping combined with some words of motivation and encouragement. Northern Valley/Demarest's layup line before Saturday's matchup against Midland Park at the Westwood Holiday Tournament, however, sounded more like the sick ward. There is a bug biting the Norsewomen at present and the coughs and sniffles explained why Victoria Corcoran was out of the starting lineup and why Brianna Tarabocchia might have wished that she could have been.

“Our back up point guard is home right now sick. Victoria has been in bed for the past two days, Brianna was throwing up at halftime, but we had to figure out a way to put a game together anyway,” said Demarest head coach Lindsay Steffner. “It was a gut check and we had to rise above it.”

The Norsewomen, who had just four players on the bench, had to rally the troops against a scrappy Group 1 opponent in Midland Park, which held a one-point after the first quarter. But the Panthers are playing short handed, too, and when Demarest got into a groove on the defensive end in the second quarter, it opened a healthy lead on the way to a 60-37 win at Westwood High School.

Demarest allowed just two points in the second quarter, a putback by Sophia Hansen just over four minutes in, and finished the first half on a 19-2 run that blew the game open. Tarabocchia fought through her illness to scored all 11 of her points in a just over five minutes of that second quarter to help give her team the breathing room. It was the quarter for the ailing and Victoria Corcoran came off the bench to score all four of her points in that second quarter as well and point guard Meghan Lewis did a good job of distributing the ball as Demarest opened a 33-17 lead at the break.

Thalia Gahlam scored 12 points to pace Midland Park.

“With some many of our girls being sick we just had to find ways to fight through it. The girls on the bench, everybody had to do their part because there are no excuses,” said Lewis, the lone senior on the Demarest roster. “We knew that Midland Park was going to be a tough opponent so we had to make the open shots when they were there and build up our confidence early.”

Lewis made two of her three 3-pointers in the first quarter and Veronica Corcoran got off to a good start as well with a couple of field goals, but Midland Park had all of the early answers. There were five lead changes and two ties in the opening eight minutes. Julie Carey hit a 3 to give the Panthers a 9-7 lead they scored the final four points of the first quarter on a backdoor layup by Thalia Gahlam and two Hansen free throws to take a 15-14 lead. But when Tarabocchia hit a 3 from the wing on Demarest's first possession of the second quarter, it gave the Norsewomen the lead for good and they never looked back.

Demarest led 51-28 after the third quarter and slowed things down in the fourth, at least offensively. The Norsewomen were solid defensively throughout, giving up just seven over the final three quarters.

“Defense is the most important thing. We work on it the most everyday in practice and we know that if we play good defense, then the offense will come,” said Tarabocchia. “One of our season goals is to win the holiday tournament and this game was the first step.”

Playing through illness, Demarest's Brianna Tarabocchia scored all 11 of her points in the decisive second quarter.

Depth is never a luxury at a small school and Midland Park's is being severely tested. The Panthers are the two-time defending North 1, Group 1 state sectional champions, but they lost Rebecca Rabeiro, one of, if not the best, player in the program's history to graduation and her replacement is now missing as well. Freshman Chloe Kasbarian, who had 22 points, 5 assists and 9 steals in her first-ever varsity game on opening night, is out for a least a couple of weeks with an injury and that is on top of the loss of sophomore Veronica Pentale, who started every game last year, to a season-ending knee injury.

Still, Midland Park is a representative side, even if its record is just 2-3 through the first two weeks of the season. The losses have been against three Bergen County powerhouses in Ramapo, Westwood and Demarest and they showed flashes on Saturday. The Panthers can pick apart a defense caught napping with excellent passing and back door cuts. The fundamentals are not the problem and the panic button is not being pushed.

“This group of kids work very hard and they do the little things well. When it came down to it today, Demarest just had a little too much for us. They are a veteran group, they have high expectations for the season, they are very well coach and that program is rolling right now,” said Midland Park head coach Sean O'Connor. “But we are chugging along. We lost a lot from last year and we are building and we are very young. We've been set back a little bit by the injuries, but our other girls have to step up and I think they will. We are getting there.”

Sophia Hansen scored 10 points for Midland Park, which fell to 2-3 on the season with all three losses coming against top competition.

Thalia Gahlam (12 points) led the Panthers in scoring with Hansen finished with 10 while Carey scored all 9 of her points from behind the arc. Morgan Ress and Elizabeth Vargas split the other four points for the Panthers.

Demarest got a game-high 19 points from Veronica Corcoran, who scored 11 in the third quarter as the Norsewomen really pulled away. Lewis made three 3-pointers and was 3 of 4 from the free throw line on the way to 18 points while Tarabocchia (11 points) made it three Demarest starters in double figures.

The early season is always a funky time with offbeat start times and players coming off of other sports trying to get in basketball shape. That is true, especially of the Corcoran twins, both three-sport standouts who were a big part of Demarest's run all the way to volleyball Tournament of Champions final last month.

“The T of C final was on a Sunday and basketball practice started the next day, that Monday and we had, literally, no break. It was a little hard to make the switch. We practiced so hard for so long trying to hit balls down and now we are trying to shoot them up,” said Veronica Corcoran. “But we are into hoops now, we are off to a good start and we are ready to go. We have high expectations on this team and we are going to hold each other accountable.”

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