February
9, 2004
March 21,
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| Morgan Henderson's two free throws sealed Tenafly's come-from-behind win. | |
RIDGEFIELD PARK - With five games left in the league season, the Tenafly girls basketball team is on the cusp of accomplishing what none other in the program's history has ever done. If the Tigers can run the table, they will capture at least a share of the BCSL-American Division title.
Tenafly has also won 16 of the 17 games it has played this season, has reached the Bergen County quarterfinals for the second straight year and has that same look in its collective eye that it had last season when it reached the county semifinals.
But all
of that mattered little in the first half and well into the third quarter
of Tuesday night's road game against Ridgefield Park. The Tigers had hit just
three field goals in the first two quarters, trailed by 14 points at halftime
and missed their first seven shots from the floor in the third quarter. At
the time, their immediate goal was to get a shot, any shot, to fall through
the basket.
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| Claudia Castro-Malaspina was the one of Tenafly's eight scorers to finish in double digits. |
"We saw the movie Miracle the other day. I talked to them about it last year before we beat (Pascack Valley in the county quarterfinals) but they really didn't have a feel for the story," said Tenafly head coach Jeff Kohler. "They understand now, and we've already had so many miracles this year."
The latest miracle started with Morgan Henderson's basket that opened the fourth quarter scoring and ended 7:37 later when Brittany Elia grabbed an offensive rebound just before the final buzzer sounded. In between, Tenafly outscored Ridgefield Park 22-4 over the final eight minutes and escaped with a 41-38 win and its league title dreams still in tact.
"This
was the game we wanted, the first one of the (five) we need to win the league
championship," said Elia, one of five seniors on the Tenafly roster. "It would
be the first time ever at our school, it is unheard of at Tenafly, and now
we are about to do it but we had to win this game."
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| Sophomore Jillian Kane led Ridgefield Park with 12 points. |
Trailing
17-6 after the first quarter and
23-9 at halftime, Tenafly made its first push to get back in the game with
a 7-0 spurt midway through the third quarter. Niki Totaro started it with
two free throws, Blair Lippman scored in the half court, and Claudia Castro-Malaspina
added a putback and a free throw to get the Tigers to within 25-17.
"We just had to keep fighting and picking each other up," said Lippman. "Even though we were behind all game, we knew that we just had to pull together and we could pull it off."
But Erika Koop scored on Ridgefield's next possession, and Alysha Giarra, RP's sophomore guard, further quieted the comeback with a three-pointer that that forced a Tenafly timeout. The Scarlets then got back-to-back baskets from Nicole Margiotta that pushed the lead back up to 17 with 32 seconds left in the third quarter, but those would be the last points that Ridgefield Park would score until well into the final period.
Tenafly
opened the fourth quarter with a 15-0 run. Ashlee Smith hit a three-pointer
from the corner and followed it up with an assist to Morgan Henderson. Henderson
then made a steal and a layup after the ensuing inbounds pass to get Tenafly
to within 34-32 and, after an RP timeout, Totaro tied the game with a foul
line jumper.
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| Niki Totaro's foul line jumper tied the game at 34 with 3:01 to play. |
The teams then traded baskets before Castro-Malaspina hit a free throw to put Tenafly up 38-37. The Scarlets took their last lead with 1:23 to go in the game when Jillian Kane hit a jumper from the wing.
Tenafly was still trailing with 31 seconds to play when, after almost losing the ball in traffic inside the paint, Elia kicked the ball out to Reiko Takatsu at the elbow. Takatsu, who is the Tigers' defensive specialist, made the most of her opportunity on the point-scoring end. With a defender rushing out, she nailed the jumper to give her team the lead for good. Elia hit both ends of a 1-and-1 with 14 seconds left to seal the win.
Showing its team-first approach, Tenafly had just one scorer in double figures, but eight players that scored at least one point. Castro-Malaspina led the way with 10 points, Elia had 8, Henderson had 7, Ashlee Smith had all of her 5 points in the fourth quarter and Totaro and Takatsu each added four points apiece.
Ridgefield
Park was led by Kane's 12 points, Giarra finished with 9, Kenny had 7 and
Margiotta (6 points) and Koop (4 points) accounted for the rest of the Scarlets'
scoring.
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| Freshman Amber Doran played well at the point for Ridgefield Park. |
Tenafly is tied with River Dell atop the league standings and has handed the Golden Hawks their only loss of the season to date. The Tigers will likely have the opportunity to do the same to Pascack Valley in Sunday's county quarterfinal, but the league championship is first and foremost on their minds.
"It's what kept us going when we were behind tonight. Beating River Dell is not going to matter, it won't matter if we beat Pascack Valley next weekend if we don't win the league championship," said Elia, who has helped pick up the slack with the loss of the program's all-time leading scorer, Alana Cassner, to graduation.
"After overcoming all of the adversity we've had this year, losing Alana, rebuilding the team, rebuilding the family, we feel like we can do anything. It's not that we are cocky and it's not that we are anything but confident. When you believe in your teammates, you feel like you can do anything."
For more pictures from this event and Tenafly's Bergen County Round of 16 victory against Bergen Tech, or to purchase a Collector's Print of this story, visit the NJS.com School Store!
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