Monday,
February 10, 2014
By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
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Melissa Heath scored twice inside during a 14-0 run that gave Northern Highlands control in a 57-29 win over Ramapo in the county quarterfinals. |
ORADELL – There are no secrets left. The Northern Highlands and Ramapo girls basketball teams just played each other in the regular season on Thursday for the second time and they were matched up again on Sunday in the quarterfinals of the Bergen County Tournament.
Execution more than anything else would make the difference and Northern Highlands put on a clinic on both ends of the floor as they swept the season series with Ramapo and also legitimized itself as a county title contender with the virtuoso performance that they have been waiting to see all season.
The fourth-seeded Highlanders jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. They held Ramapo without a field goal for 11 minutes spanning the first and second quarters in taking a commanding 21-4 lead and cruised to a 57-29 triumph over No. 12 seed Ramapo at River Dell High School in Oradell.
“We watched a ton of film on them and kept our focus on preventing them from scoring every time down,” said Northern Highlands' junior center Melissa Heath. “We also put in a few new offensive wrinkles and everything was working.”
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Reilly While (21) and Ramapo fell to Highlands for the third time this season. |
Northern Highlands already held a 7-4 lead near the midway point in the first quarter before completely taking over the game. Nicole Miko hit a pair of jumpers and Heath scored twice inside to kickstart a game-changing 14-0 run en route to a 26-11 halftime lead.
The Highlanders never took their foot off the gas as senior point guard Madison Dunbar keyed another huge run. This one was a 17-0 spurt as they remarkably led by as many as 35 points over a Ramapo (11-3) team that has six wins over teams that played in the county tournament this season.
“You can never count a team like Ramapo out and we had to keep the pressure on them,” said Dunbar, who will play at the University of Chicago next year. “Everyone contributed on both offense and defense. We put together a total team effort.”
Heath dominated the paint leading all players with 16 points, 13 rebounds, and six blocks for Northern Highlands (17-3). Dunbar, who recently broke the school's all-time assist record, also filled the stat sheet with 11 points, six assists, and five steals.
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Nicole Miko and Highlands will play top-seeded IHA in the county semifinals. |
Interestingly, the Highlanders three losses this season were to the other three Bergen County semifinalists (IHA, Immaculate Conception, and Teaneck). But those losses were by a combined total of eight points and the Highlanders are by far the hottest team in the county heading into the semis with nine straight wins by an average margin of victory of over 20 points per game.
Playing their best basketball of the season and having nothing to lose when they face the top seed in the tournament and defending champion IHA next Saturday at Ramapo College, the Highlanders are excited to about the opportunity to see if they can exact a measure of a revenge for one or hopefully in their case two of their losses.
“To get this far with what a lot of people thought would be a down year for us, whatever happens from here is just icing on the cake,” added Dunbar. “We're playing really well right now. We're going go try and keep that momentum going all the way through next weekend and take it one game at a time.”
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