Sunday,
January 19, 2014
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
|
|
Julia McClure scored a game-high 22 points for Secaucus, which improved to 8-3 on the season with a 68-53 win over Saddle River Day on Saturday at the Public vs. Private Showcase. |
ENGLEWOOD – Knowing that his team was talented and that his league schedule would not likely be able to provide the number of games against top-notch competition that he wanted to get his team ready for the postseason, Secaucus girls basketball coach John Sterling went out and scheduled quality independent games where ever he could find them.
Sterling put the Patriots in the always difficult Joe Poli Holiday Tournament where they lost to eventual champion Northern Highlands, he took them on the road to take on Rancocas Valley, last season's Tournament of Champions finalist and lost by six points, and he even lined up a bus trip to Staten Island where they lost in overtime to Moore Catholic.
Sterling has accomplished the mission of exposing his team to the best competition out there, but that was only part of the plan.
“We went out and got very tough opponents, but I have told the girls that we have got to go out and win some of them,” said Sterling. “It's not okay to say all the time, “Wow, we played tough against all of these good teams,” only to lose against them. It was time to get out on the floor against a good team and get a win.”
|
Saddle River Day senior Izzy McMahon scored a team-high 19. |
Now Secaucus can make that claim as it entered the Public vs. Private Challenge at Dwight Morrow High School on Saturday, took on a talented Saddle River Day team and shot the lights out in the third quarter on the way to an impressive 68-53 win in Englewood.
“We are playing a hard schedule but it is not good to lose against the good teams and beat the bad teams. It doesn't really prove anything,” said Julia McClure, the junior who scored a game-high 22 points and was named Secaucus' Player of the Game. “We have to win some of these games and that is why this game was so important to us.”
There was a high level of hoops played on both sides, especially in the first half and especially by McClure and Saddle River Day senior Izzy McMahon. McClure scored 15 of her 22 in the first two quarters and McMahon, who will play next season at West Point, scored 16 of her team-high 19 before the break. Neither team had more than a six-point lead in the first half and it ended with a McMahon ankle-breaking drive from the baseline to draw the Rebels to within 28-27 heading into the locker room.
McMahon, who burst on the scene in the 2011 Bergen County Tournament final as freshman at IHA, has evolved her game from deep threat to all around threat as she handles the ball smoothly, passes with vision, gets to the basket and still has the high-arching jumper that she brought with her to the varsity level four years ago. She is a matchup nightmare.
|
Secaucus point guard Andie Lennon scored 12 of her 15 points after halftime. |
“Izzy is a fabulous player. She is quick, she doesn't force, she takes only good shots and she gets down the lane,” said Sterling. “I was mad at our girls for not taking a couple of charges, but she is so quick that she avoids that contact and keeps right on going.”
That being said, it was all the more impressive when Secaucus held McMahon without a point while it went on its third quarter run. Andie Lennon, the Patriots' junior point guard, opened the third quarter with a 3-pointer to set the tone only to see it answered by a conventional 3-point play at the other end by Dani McMahon, SR-D's sophomore forward and Izzy's younger sister. Secaucus came right back with a 10-3 run that turned the game in its favor for good. Kristina Ulrich got a defender in the air and then stepped-in to hit a 12-footer from the baseline that capped the spurt and gave Secaucus a 41-22 lead.
The Patriots' lead reached double digits for the first time when McClure grabbed an offensive rebound and kicked it out for Lennon, who drilled the second chance 3-pointer to make it 47-36 and the lead swelled to 50-38 when McClure beat the third period buzzer with a 3-pointer from the corner off a set play on an out/under.
McClure scored off another inbounds pass to start the fourth quarter to make it a 14-point lead, but the Rebels has one more run in them. A 9-2 run that included a free throw by Dani McMahon, a 3-pointer by Carly Christofi, a tap-in by Cassie Cruz and another Cruz bucket inside got Saddle River Day back to within single digits at 61-53 with 1:46 to play, but McClure scored off yet another inbounds play to push the lead back into double digits for good and the Patriots went 5 of 6 from the line in the final 1:02 to seal the win.
|
Cassie Cruz scored 8 points off the bench for Saddle River Day. |
Izzy Mcmahon was joined in double figures by Christofi (11 points). Cruz scored her 8 points off the bench, Dani McMahon finished with 7, Kelly Hannigan added 6 and Kayla Oge (2 points), Saddle River Day's starting forward and main low post presence, battled foul trouble all game and round out the Rebels scoring.
Secaucus was well-balanced as it put four players in double figures led by McClure's 22. Lennon scored 12 of her 15 points in the second half and Kendall Caruso and Alyson Toman each had 10 points apiece. Ulrich (7 points) was 5 of 6 from the free throw line and Julia Peschetti and Brielle Mattiello each made field goals off the bench for the Patriots, who improved to 8-3 on the season.
Toman's contribution was particularly important and her continued development is paramount for the Patriots going forward. They have designs on league and county championships this season and Toman has stepped in to fill an unexpected hole in the middle. She was a JV player and a varsity sub as a freshman last year behind one of her best friends, Zoe Pero, who was dominant in the post last season as a freshman, but made a last minute decision to bolt Hudson County for the perceived greener pastures of state power St. John-Vianney.
|
Sophomore Alyson Toman is now the key post player for Secaucus. |
Pero is nearing the end of her 30-day transfer moratorium while Toman has taken her place in Secaucus' starting lineup. All Toman did on Saturday was finished two rebounds shy of a double-double, put Oge in early foul trouble and make plays at both ends. She showed the ability to run the floor by finishing a fourth quarter fastbreak and she scored twice on post moves and once off the offensive glass.
“You hate to lose any player from your program and Zoe was really nice girl to coach and has a bright future, but I told our girls that her leaving is really just an opportunity for someone else,” said Sterling. “Alyson Toman has stepped up and really improved as the season has gone along and she is doing a lot of good things. She still has a lot of room for improvement because she is still just a sophomore, but I see how hard she is working everyday and that has shown up on the court.”
It certainly been an interesting, if not awkward, road to the starting lineup for Toman.
“She is my best friend and I have played with Zoe my whole life from third grade right up to this year. When I found out she was leaving I was upset, but when it came to basketball I knew that it was my time to step up. We're still pretty close, I miss her and I want her to do well, but I have to concentrate on what I have to do now,” said Toman. “I am trying to do my best not to try to be like her, but to play well enough for the team to make it feel like she is still here.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS GAME.
TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT
OF THIS STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com. |