February
12, 2007
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| Old Tappan point guard Sam Sinatra finished with 16 points, five assists, and three steals as the Golden Knights led from start to finish in the Bergen County quarterfinals. | |
EAST RUTHERFORD – Northern Valley/Old Tappan knew what a team like River Dell was capable of. With an all-county player in Alyssa May running the show, the Golden Knights were aware that the River Dell senior was capable of taking over a game completely, especially if her team had a lead.
Without having a designated ‘go-to’ player, getting solid contributions from the entire team was imperative to OT’s success. It took just two minutes into the game for the Golden Knights to establish control and they never let up.
Megan Tobia and Sam Sinatra combined to hit Old Tappan’s first four shots. As a result, the third-seeded Golden Knights grabbed a 10-0 lead and never trailed en route to a 61-44 victory over River Dell, the No. 6 seed.
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| River Dell's Alyssa May going in for two of her game-high 25 points. |
“We wanted to set the tone and we did a real good job of that,” said Sinatra, a junior point guard. “The key was to come out playing calm and relaxed. We hit our first couple of shots and that got us going. Another key was that everybody contributed in some way to us winning this game. I don’t think they could key on one person, which was to our advantage.”
Old Tappan did not take long to pull ahead by double-digits, but the Hawks were able to stay within striking distance until late in the second period. Kristen Barry’s three-pointer trimmed the lead down to three, 21-18. But the Hawks turned the ball over on their next three possessions and the Golden Knights made them pay for it. Adriana Durso came off the bench to hit two three-pointers as Old Tappan pushed the lead back up to 10 by halftime, 30-20.
“That was the most crucial part of the game and it was really a turning point,” said River Dell head coach Lou Wejnert. “We fought hard to cut it to three points and we had a chance to cut it down even further. But the difference was that when the game got close, they executed and we didn’t. (Alyssa) May had to work for every shot she took and they got a positive contribution on either end from everyone.”
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| Chanel Van Dyke made 11 of her 12 fourth quarter free throw attempts as Old Tappan maintained its lead. |
May scored the first basket of the second half, but the Hawks never got below a double-digit deficit the rest of the way. That was largely in part to the defense played by Lisa Jaris and Alex Radetsky, before Chanel Van Dyke took over the fourth quarter from the charity stripe. The junior guard hit 11 of her 12 fourth quarter free-throw attempts to put the game away.
Sinatra finished with 16 points, five assists, and three steals, which were all team-highs for Northern Valley/Old Tappan (18-2). Van Dyke scored 13 of her 15 points from the free-throw line. Radetsky, a freshman, added a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds.
May finished with game-highs of 25 points and 13 rebounds, but only on 8 of 29 shooting. Barry added seven points and five rebounds for River Dell (19-4).
The Golden Knights will take on second-seeded Holy Angels in next Saturday’s Bergen County semifinals. But head coach Brian Dunn does not want to even think about that game just yet.
“We still have a tough week before we get to that game,” said Dunn. “But these kids have worked so hard and we’ll be prepared for the semifinals when the time comes. We’ve been in big games before so we know how to handle the pressure. We played loose and everyone on our team made a contribution in some way.”
FOR MORE PHOTOS OF THE EVENT OR TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS GAME STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com.
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