Tuesday,
January 21, 2014
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
|
|
Icies Hammer, North Bergen's center, showed off her all around offensive skills as she scored 14 points in a 53-39 win over River Dell at the MLK Roundball Round Up in Union City. |
UNION CITY – It was branded the MLK Roundball Round Up, four girls basketball games played at Union City High School on Monday afternoon, but it also could have been called a preview of the late round of the rounds of the Hudson County Tournament. The three teams with the most realistic chance of dethroning Lincoln were all in action in the final two games. Bayonne proved that it is a player by pulling away from Secaucus in the fourth quarter on the way to a 50-42 win and, in the nightcap, North Bergen used the second half of its game against River Dell to show why it will be a county contender.
Trailing by two points at halftime, the Bruins outscored River Dell 16-5 in the third quarter and then used an 8-0 run to start the fourth to grab its 10th win of the season by a 53-39 score.
“Everybody is chasing Lincoln. You have Bayonne, Secaucus, us and even maybe St. Dom's and Marist as darkhorses, and with three of us playing here today, this was a good place to see where we stand,” said North Bergen head coach Don Reardon. “For us today it was just a matter of playing better man [defense] in the second half. We had to guard better, which we did in the second half, and that what the difference.”
North Bergen allowed 26 first-half points but only half that number in the third and fourth quarters combined. Icies Hammer, North Bergen's senior center who can score in the post and step out as far as the 3-point line, scored inside to open the third quarter scoring and then hit 1 of 2 free throws on the next possession to turn the two-point halftime deficit into the one-point lead that the Bruins never gave back. Alyssa Marrero, added four straight points to make it a 7-0 that basically turned the game for good.
|
Sophomore Christine Woods scored 14 points to lead River Dell. |
With Hammer commanding attention from defenses, a player like Marrero is invaluable to the Bruins, who might just be that consistent second scorer away from being a legit county contender. Marrero was that only Monday and more, finishing with a game-high 22 points. She made three 3-pointers to show off her range, she scored twice on the fastbreak, once on a pull-up jumper and went to the hole enough to get to the free throw line where she went 7-for-8.
“She is a senior and we have encouraged her to be that second option for us,” said Reardon. “She is an unselfish player, but we need her to score to keep defenses off of Icies a little bit. Today was the perfect example of that.”
When Marrero, a left-hander shooter, made the last of her 3-pointers, which came just before the third period buzzer, the Bruins had built a 40-31 lead. River Dell, which is at its best in a grind-it-out, possession-by-possession game, is not really equipped to come from way behind to steal games in the fourth quarter.
“We are in a funk and we are having trouble getting out of it. We are having trouble hit the right player for the right shot at the right time. We are pretty good defensively, we haven't really worked on it all that much because our kids play hard on that end and we didn't do a bad job there tonight,” said River Dell head coach Lou Wejnert. “But offensively we just can't get fluid. We are not on the same page. We are working on it and we will click eventually, but it's just not there yet.”
|
North Bergen senior Alyssa Marrero scored a game-high 22. |
Sophomore Christine Woods kept River Dell in the game in the first half. She scored 9 points in the first two quarters by taking the ball to the basket and drawing contact. She hit 7 of 8 from the free throw line in the first half and her last free throw gave the Golden Hawks their largest lead of the game at 24-20 with 2:19 left in the second period. After three straight Marrero free throws tied the game at 24, Madeline Weber scored to give River Dell the two-point lead at the break.
After that, however, it was all North Bergen as it held River Dell to just five second half field goals. Hammer's two free throws 1:28 into the third quarter gave the Bruins the lead for good as they improved to 10-3 on the season. Hammer (14 points) and Marrero combined for 36 of North Bergen's 53 points while point guard Jillian Jover added 6 points, 4 of them from the free throw line where the Bruins shot 17 of 27 as a team.
Woods (14 points) was the lone Golden Hawk to finish in double figures. Emily McGovern, Kayleen Melvin and Jenna Cappolla, who came off the bench, each finished with 6 points for River Dell, which fell to 7-5 on the season.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS GAME.
TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT
OF THIS STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com. |