Monday,
February 10, 2014
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Sam Fuehring scored a game-high 18 points for Imm. Conception, which reached the Bergen County Tournament semis for the first time in school history with a 50-35 win over Westwood. |
ORADELL – In three of the past four Bergen County Girls Basketball Tournaments, Immaculate Conception has come close to cracking the big time. Three times the Blue Wolves were one win away from making the Final 4 at Ramapo College and three times the they came up just short. This difference this time around is that in the 2014 tournament, Immaculate Conception was given the No. 2 seed and anything other than breaking through the quarterfinal glass ceiling would have been a disappointment.
Playing against 10th-seeded Westwood, a team making its deepest foray into the tournament since 1988, in the Round of 8 on Sunday at River Dell High School, Immaculate Conception was the favorite to advance and those expectations were something new to the program.
“The girls know all about our history and maybe they could have come out a little tight,” said IC head coach Jeff Horohonich. “We've been to the Final 8, but we have never gotten over the hump and that is something we have talked about.”
Now the conversation can change as, with a 9-1 run to start the third quarter, Immaculate Conception put some space between itself and Westwood and went on to a 50-35 win that puts it in next weekend's semifinal round against No. 3 Teaneck.
Westwood got off to a fast start as it scored 8 of the game's first 11 points culminating in Rachel Mosca's 3-pointer 3:19 in. Immaculate Conception responded with a 12-2 run and when freshman Khayla Latimer hit a 3-pointer to close the first half scoring, IC had a 15-10 lead.
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Rachel Mosca made five 3-pointers and led Westwood with 15 points. |
“I was so nervous at the beginning because I am a freshman and I had never played in a high school game this big before,” said Latimer. “My older teammates have all been to this round before but never got past it and we all worked together because this was a goal we really wanted to accomplish. We started off slow, but I think it was because we were a little nervous. We just had to settle down.”
A 3-pointer from the wing by Nicole Skelly and two free throws by Sam Fuehring gave IC its largest lead of the first half at 25-16, but Westwood's Samantha McClutchy backed in for a basket and Jaide Hinds-Clarke beat the halftime buzzer with a 3-pointer that got the Cardinals right back in the game, down just 25-21 at the half.
McClutchy hit a free throw to start the third quarter to draw Westwood even closer, but IC responded with a 9-0 run with the last five of those points coming via Jasmine Gee, who drove in for a layup from the high post and then hit a 3 from the wing to stretch the Wolves lead back into double digits at 35-24. IC led by 13 after the third quarter and Westwood cut it back to single digits just once in the final period at 37-29 after Mosca hit the last of her five 3-pointers in the game.
“At times defensively in the first half we missed some assignments and [Hinds-Clarke] hit the 3 at the buzzer to get them back in it, but we are still learning how to be a little more disciplined,” said Horohonich. “In the third quarter we stepped it up and played better defensively and I think [Westwood] got a little tired.”
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Khayla Latimer, an IC freshman and Teaneck resident, will play her hometown team next weekend in the county Final 4 |
All of Westwood's scoring came from just three players as Mosca scored all of her team-high 15 points from behind the arc while Hinds-Clarke scored 11 points and McClutchy added 9. Immaculate Conception was also top-heavy in its scoring distribution as Fuehring (19 points), Latimer (15 points) and Gee (11 points) all finished in double figures, but Skelly's two second quarter 3-pointers accounted for the only other points scored by the Blue Wolves.
So Immaculate Conception is officially over the hump as it heads to the Bergen County semifinals for the first time in the program's history, but it is also hoping that this is not the end of the line.
“We are very confident that we have a chance to go all the way with this. Coach has been telling us how exciting it is to get a chance to play at Ramapo College and we are their now and we are happy about that,” said Fuehring. “The biggest this is that we continue to work as a team. We are sharing the ball all around the court, getting the ball to the people that are open and that is the way we can keep getting it done.”
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