March
10, 2004
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| Jefferson's Lisa Koch scored 20 points, including two big ones that cut off Pascack Valley's last run at getting back in the game. | |
SECAUCUS -- For the first 19 minutes of Thursday night's North 1, Group 2 state sectional final, Lisa Koch was leading Jefferson to a stunning start against top-seeded Pascack Valley. The Falcons scored the first eight points of the game and had steadily built upon it until the spread reached 16 points midway through the third quarter.
But just four minutes later, Koch found herself with the ball in her hands and her team in need of basket to answer the 16-4 run that Pascack Valley pulled off in just over three minutes to get to within four points early in the fourth quarter.
"My dad
always told me that I need to dribble and take the pull-up (jumper) more,"
said Koch. "He told me before the game, he said take a few dribbles and pull
up, and it worked a few times."
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| Heather Zurich scored 13 second half points, but Pascack Valley could get no closer than four points in the final 16 minutes. |
It worked with 6:27 to go in the game. Koch got into the lane, pulled up just short of the basket and knocked in the shot the put her team up by six. The next time down the floor, Laura McKernan drilled a three from the top of the key, the lead was back up to nine and that was it. Jefferson (24-1) took Pascack Valley's best shot then finished off a 49-44 wire-to-wire win.
It gave the Falcons, the No. 2 seed, their fifth sectional title under head coach Jim O'Connor, their first since 1993 and a trip to the Group 2 semifinals where they will take on North 2, Group 2 champion Chatham on Thursday night at Vernon High School.
"Today
I took the kids down to see the trophies we won back in 1992 and '93. Looking
at it brought back a bunch of memories about what it took to get there," said
O'Connor, who led the Falcons to the outright Group 2 state championship back
in 1992. "It feels great and I am so happy for the kids."
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| Laura McKernan hit a clutch three-pointers, the secnd of which came with 5:29 to go in the game to put Jefferson up 9. |
Jefferson hit eight three-pointers in the game and two straight by Lopez that closed the first quarter gave Jefferson its first double digit lead, 14-3, at the end of the first quarter. Bryanne Corra and Zurich supplied just about all of the Indians' offense in the first half. The pair scored 16 of PV's 19 first half points and Zurich's pull up jumper got PV to within 23-19.
But she picked up her third foul nine seconds later, Koch hit one of two free throws to put Jefferson up 24-19 at the break and Koch then opened the second half with another basket. The next time down, Lopez nailed another three to put Jefferson was back up by 10. The last of Lopez's four threes came with 4:19 to go in the third quarter and gave the Falcons their largest lead, 39-23.
That's
when Zurich stepped up. She hit back-to-back threes on consecutive possessions
from just about the same spot on the floor. Dana Beierle then hit a jumper
to get PV back within eight points at 39-31. Koch briefly answered for Jefferson,
but Hilary Scaccheti hit a putback for her only points of the game and Zurich
hit another three from the corner to close the deficit to five points, 41-36,
heading in the fourth quarter.
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| PV's Bryanne Corra finished with 14 points in her final high school game. |
Corra made it a four point game with a baseline jumper with just under seven minutes to play, but then Koch hit the pull up when it counted, knocked down a free throw and set up the McKernan three that ended the suspense with 5:29 to play in the game.
"Jefferson is a quality club. They hit a lot threes and they did the big things," said Pascack Valley head coach Jeff Jasper, whose team was looking for its second sectional title in the last three years. "Each time we would claw back to within a reasonable amount one of those kids would hit a big three."
The problem for Pascack Valley (25-3) had to do with fouls, both picking them up and then giving them away. Zurich picked up her third 18 seconds before halftime and her fourth, which came with just over six minutes to play in the game, was her team's first in the second half. So after she hit a three with 3:31 to go in the game to get her team back within single digits at 49-42, the Indians still had six fouls to give.
By the
time Jefferson finally got into the bonus, Zurich had fouled out, there were
just 19 seconds on the clock and the Falcons were still ahead by seven without
scoring a single point for over three minutes.
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| Steph Wilke was dominant on the defensive end for Jefferson. |
The loss ended Pascack Valley's season, one in which the Indians won a 26th straight league championship and reached both the Bergen County and state sectional final. Corra, a senior, was outstanding in her final high school game, scoring 14 points and carrying the offense through most of the first half. Zurich, a junior who will be one of the state's top retuning players next year, finished with a game-high 21 points.
But PV got only five field goals and 11 points from other sources. Kristen Brown finished her outstanding high school career with three points, Beierle, another senior, finished with four and Scaccheti had the Indians' only other basket.
"My biggest disappointment is that I can not go to practice tomorrow. I am a coach and right now I don't have a team," said Jasper, who has won 11 sectional titles in his 31 years as the PV head coach. "This is among the greatest group of kids that I have ever had the opportunity to coach. Our relationships will grow obviously well beyond the basketball part of it, but I will miss them tremendously because of the quality people that they are."
One of Jasper's former players, sort of, has at least one game left in her season. Koch, who attended Jasper's shooting clinics as a third through eighth grader while growing up in Park Ridge, has Jefferson in the Group 2 semifinals.
She led the Falcons with with 20 points, while Lopez scored all 12 of her points from behind the arc. McKernan finished with 10 to make it three Falcons in double figures and Pritchard scored 6.
"Our key was to just stay with them, but actually we got the lead and never looked back," said Koch, who scored over 230 points as a freshman playing varsity at Park Ridge before her family relocated to Morris County before last season. "We just moved the ball up the court, took our time and ran the clock well."
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