January
30, 2005
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| Old Tappan's Kaitlyn Kiely scored a team-high 14 points as the Golden Knights knocked off New Milford. | |
DUMONT -- When the girls county basketball tournament rolls around, the opening round is always full of games where the opponents know little if anything about each other. The game starts as a feeling out process for both teams, looking for the edge.
The Old Tappan-New Milford game was an example of that. Old Tappan jumped out to an early 8-0 lead before New Milford came back and grabbed a 20-19 lead in the second quarter, despite a rash of turnovers and unforced errors.
Talent
usually will rise to the top, though, and Old Tappan began to assert its advantage
on the glass and eventually wore down the Green Knights on the way to a 51-37
win. The 12th-seeded Golden Knights (10-4) move on to face Saddle Brook, an
upset winner over Teaneck, in the Round of 16 next Saturday.
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| Kathleen Maggi and New Milford wiped out an early deficit to get back in the game, before Old Tappan broke it open in the second half. |
Using that quick 8-0 lead, the Golden Knights jumped out to a 15-9 lead after the first quarter, then scored the opening basket of the second quarter. New Milford was turning the ball over, and the score could have been worse.
"Some of the turnovers were the kind that come from being nervous," NM head coach Tony Albro admitted. "We came out a bit tentative, but we fought back and got the lead."
The Green Knights then went on an 8-0 run of their own to tie the game at 17, the equalizer coming off a steal by Kristy Victory. Kaitlyn Kiely stemmed the tide with a basket, but NM took the lead on a Victory three-point field goal with 3:16 to go in the half.
"We got
settled down," Albro related. "We were playing better, but then we had three
straight turnovers and they took advantage."
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| Old Tappan's Lisa Jaris getting position inside. |
Kiely led the closing 8-1 run with 6 of the points that moved Old Tappan out to a 27-21 lead at the break.
"To get 17 turnovers and score only 27 points is disturbing," OT head coach Brian Dunn said. "That they had 21 points was not good, either. We need to keep teams in the 30's to have a good chance to win. We're not going to score more than 50 points very often."
After a slow start to the third quarter, OT ran off 11 straight points over a 7:35 period spanning the third and fourth quarters. Alexis Keller had the first five points in the run, and Stephanie Tendler scored off a rebound to make it 36-23 at the end of the third quarter.
"They
asserted their height in the third quarter," Albro assessed, "and that turned
the game in their favor. We have to hit our shots, and we weren't getting
good looks."
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| Kristy Victory led New Milford with a game-high 19 points. |
New Milford was just 1 of 9 in the period from the floor, but Old Tappan was 4 of 15 as the Golden Knights never asserted control despite doing a good job in their half court defense.
"You start out looking for what will work," Dunn said, "and work on those things. We were a bit off for some reason. I don't know what it was, but it's a win. You take it and move on."
Kiely (14 points) opened the fourth quarter with a field goal and Lisa Jaris hit two free throws to make it a 40-23 game with 7:09 left, essentially shutting the door on the Green Knights.
Old Tappan ended up with a 37-21 advantage in rebounding, with Ashley Lamparello taking down 13 boards and Katie Wolosz 7. Keller added 12 points and Tendler 11 as the Golden Knights hit 19 of 58 from the floor and 11 of 18 at the line.
New Milford (11-4) was 12 of 38 from the floor and 11 of 16 at the line, with Victory scoring a game-high 19 points and grabbing 7 rebounds. New Milford was guilty of 27 total turnovers in losing their eighth straight county tournament game without a win.
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