February
6, 2006
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| Elissa Klie hit a jumper with 10.1 seconds left to lift 13th-seeded Ramapo to its second straight upset, a 37-35 win over Old Tappan that moves the Raiders into the Final 4 for the first time since 1985. | |
MAHWAH -- Elissa Klie was ready to play Sunday night’s Bergen County girls basketball quarterfinal game. So ready, in fact, that she didn’t even wait for her name to be announced before running out on the floor.
She may have been a bit early at the start, but she was certainly there at the finish, hitting a jumper with 10.1 seconds to go that gave Ramapo a 37-35 win over fifth-seed Old Tappan and completed a day in which all four lower seeds advanced to the Final Four.
It will be the first trip to the semifinals for the 13th-seeded Raiders since 1985, and they will take on the eighth seed, Immaculate Heart. It is the first time in the 32-year history of the county tournament that all of the top five seeds have been ousted before the Final Four.
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| Old Tappan's Alexis Keller scored 19 of her 22 points in the second half. |
Old Tappan did not go quietly despite a scoreless second period and a double digit deficit at halftime. The Golden Knights fought back behind four second half three-point field goals by Alexis Keller, who scored 19 of her 22 points after the intermission.
When Kaitlyn Kiely dropped in a three ball with 31.4 left in the game, OT had tied it up at 35. After a Ramapo time out, the Raiders worked the ball to Klie at the foul line, and she took a step into the paint before putting up a jump shot that gave the Raiders the lead.
“What a great shot she made,” Ramapo head coach Steve Silver remarked.
The Knights came down and called time out with two seconds to go, taking the ball out on the right sideline just across half court. The inbounds went to the baseline, but OT's shot off a drive came up short as time expired.
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| Samantha Depken handed out four assists for Ramapo, which will take on IHA in the semifinals. |
“We didn’t play badly, we just didn’t shoot the ball well,” OT head coach Brian Dunn said. “That’s the way it goes sometimes. It wasn’t anything more than just knocking down a couple more shots.”
The game-winner was one of many big shots that Klie would score, as she led the Raiders with 15 points and also had 7 rebounds and a blocked shot.
“We were ready today. We were energized,” Klie said of her team. “It felt so much easier to play with everything going (so fast) and not having time to think.”
That included the pre-game introductions, when she got a head start on the starting line-up announcements.
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| Kaitlyn Kiely hit a three-pointer to get Old Tappan even with 31.4 seconds left in the fourth quarter. |
“I thought they called my name out when they flashed it up on the scoreboard, and everyone said, that’s you, so I kind of ran out, and then I realized,” Klie said sheepishly.
As the first one on the court, it was fitting that she also got the game’s opening basket, and Ramapo never trailed in the game. They had an 11-6 lead after the first quarter and 17-6 at the half, as Old Tappan went 0 for 7 in the second quarter and missed two free throws. The Knights were 2 of 19 from the floor in the first two quarters.
The third quarter was a different story as Keller got hot. Kiely hit a three-pointer and Keller dropped three straight baskets, the last a three, for a 10-0 run that got Old Tappan within one. Ramapo responded with a 7-0 run of its own, including a Lindsay Ianna three ball, and escaped the third period with a 25-19 edge.
Keller then sandwiched three Raider misses at the free throw line with a pair of threes, the latter tying the game at 25 with 5:11 left. Klie then responded at the other end, getting fouled and hitting both free throws to restore the lead to the Raiders. The Knights tied it again on a Van Dyke hoop, but Ianna answered back with 3:46 left.
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| Lindsay Ianna added 12 points for Ramapo, which improved to 16-6 with the win. |
“Every time we put some pressure on, they came down and hit some shots,” Dunn said.
Ianna hit a running shot as she was fouled to make it 31-27, and it was 35-31 with 59,7 on the clock when Keller hit one of two at the stripe. Two missed free throws opened the door for the Knights, and Kiely knotted the game to set up the winning sequence.
“You have to take advantage of your opportunities,” Silver related. “They’re a hard team to play. We had to try and score in transition when we had it, and we were able to work some of our set plays.”
Old Tappan (20-2) was 11 of 23 from the floor in the second half to end up 13 of 42 (8 of 15 from three, with Keller going 5 of 8), and they hit 1 of 4 free throws. Kiely had 11 points and Ashley Lamparello had 7 rebounds to pace the Knights.
Ianna added 12 points for Ramapo (16-6), which got 4 assists from Samantha Depken and 6 rebounds off the bench from Brittany Baiunco. The Raiders hit 15 of 28 field goals (2 of 3 threes) but only 5 of 13 foul shots.
FOR MORE PHOTOS OF THIS GAME OR TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS GAME STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com.
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