March
4, 2004
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| Morgan Henderson (21) made key baskets down the stretch as Tenafly reached the sectional semifinals for the first time in program history. | |
TENAFLY - The Tenafly girls basketball team prides itself on its team-first mentality. It's the how the Tigers play such tough help defense, how they won the BCSL-American Division title for the first time in school history this season and how they run eight, nine or sometimes even 10 players into every game.
But even the most well-balanced and unselfish team needs a place to throw the ball in order to get a basket late in the fourth quarter of a close game. And on Wednesday night in the quarterfinals of the North 1, Group 2 state sectional playoffs, where the Tigers threw the ball in crunch time against league rival Dumont was into the post where senior Morgan Henderson was working hard for position.
Twice
in the fourth quarter Dumont tied the score and both times it was Henderson
who gave her team back the lead. She scored on a drop step with 4:37 to go
in the game, put back a missed shot with 3:38 to go and, after Dumont (17-9)
got to within two points for the final time, it was Henderson's basket in
the paint that made it a two-possession game for good with 2:27 to play.
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| Dumont junior Ashley Cieplicki scored 14 of her game-high 20 points after halftime. |
In the end, Tenafly (23-3) held on for a 43-39 win and the first trip to the sectional semifinals in the history of the girls basketball program.
"Everybody on this team knows what they have to do, especially late in games. We all have our roles," said Henderson, who scored seven of her team-high 11 points in the fourth quarter. "I was a little nervous in the beginning (of the game) but definitely not at the end. I just knew we didn't want to lose to Dumont for our last game."
Like the first two times the teams played this season, Wednesday's game was a defensive struggle. But also like the other two matchups, Tenafly played mainly from in front. The Tigers never trailed after a Henderson free throw gave her team the lead at 7-6 late in the first quarter.
Dumont
was within a point when Ashley Cieplicki hit a pull up jumper with 2:24 to
go in the second quarter, but the Tigers closed the first half on a 6-0 run
with a Claudia Castro-Malaspina layup off a pass from Reiko Takutsu and four
straight Henderson free throws as Tenafly took a seven-point lead into the
half.
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| Rachel Heron (43) hit a key putback to stretch the Tenafly lead to six points with under two minutes to play. |
Niki Totaro (10 points) hit a pair of free throws to open the second half to give Tenafly its largest lead of the game and through 17 minutes of play, Dumont had scored just 14 points.
"They disrupt your (offensive) flow so much, you can't start anything," said Dumont head coach Dave Cieplicki. "They overplay (the passing lanes) so well and they make it very difficult to get in a rhythm."
But the Huskies did eventually find a few holes and started to get themselves back in the game. Emily Aponte made two straight baskets, the second on a drive to the hoop that she finished with her left hand, to get Dumont back to within four points and Jen Pleuse's only points of the game closed the third quarter scoring and got the Huskies back to within 29-26.
They
then tied the score on a Katie Gynegroswki three-pointer from the wing, the
only shot from behind the arc that either team made in the game, before Henderson
converted inside for a 33-31 Tenafly lead. After Ashley Cieplicki, who scored
14 of her game-high 20 points in the second half with 11 of those coming in
the fourth quarter, pulled Dumont back even for the last time at 33, Henderson
hit the putback that gave her team the lead for good.
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| Katie Gynegrowski is one of four Dumont starters who will return next season. |
Rachel Herron (4 points), who was limited by foul trouble for most of the game, putback her own miss with 1:44 to play to give Tenafly a six-point lead and the Tigers made just 2 of 6 free throws down the stretch, but it was enough to hold on.
Outside of Cieplicki, who was 6 of 6 from the line, Dumont struggled again at the stripe with the rest of the team combining to go just 2 for 12. Aponte finished with 9 points, Gynegrowski finished with 7 for the Huskies, who will have all but one starter, senior Amanda Lada, back next season.
"You
know what, I'll sleep fine tonight because I know that I have my four leading
scorers coming back," said Dave Cieplicki, who just finished his 22nd season
as the Dumont head coach. "It was a good season. If somebody had told me last
summer that that we would win 17 games, I would have kissed them."
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| Claudia Castro-Malaspina had five steals as a part of Tenafly's stingy defense. |
Tenafly, on the other hand, has a least one more game to play and it will be on Friday night at Jefferson, the No. 2 seed. The third-seeded Tigers are entering uncharted waters heading off for a road trip to the semifinals, but are looking forward to the challenge.
"Our help defense is the reason why where we are at this point and it is what we will be counting on on Friday," said Jeff Kohler, who has piled up over 90 wins in his five years as the Tenafly head coach. "We don't know much about Jefferson, and we have some girls banged up and playing through pain, but we are not ready to pack it in yet."
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