Wednesday,
February 20, 2014
By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
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Dani LaPorta and Bergenfield held off a late Paramus charge to grab a 30-28 win on Tuesday night. |
BERGENFIELD – When a season does not go as well as originally planned it is hard on the entire team, but especially on the seniors who are playing in a high school uniform for the last time. With their hopes of qualifying for both the county and state tournaments dashed, both the Bergenfield and Paramus girls basketball teams squared off on Tuesday night in a battle between two teams who are trying to send the seniors off on a good note and build some momentum heading into next season.
The game went right down to the wire as Bergenfield held off several late charges, including a potential game-winning 3-point attempt at the buzzer, to score a 40-38 triumph at Bergenfield High School.
“This was a big one for us after being down early in the game,” said Bergenfield head coach Mike Kilgallen “Paramus is so well-coached that you knew they were going to make a run at the end. I thought that 3 was going to go in, but we were able to sneak out of here with a victory.”
Paramus was on a roll heading into the game with three wins in its last four games, including its biggest victory of the season over Glen Rock. The Spartans carried that momentum into this game with Alexa Colantino hitting a pair of first-quarter 3s to get them going. Jackie Helm’s nifty tap pass to her sister Sabrina gave the Spartans their largest lead of the game, 16-8.
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Nicole DiPasquale scored a team-high 8 points for Paramus. |
The Lady Bears stayed poised despite being down and got a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Haleigh Martin that sliced the Spartans’ six-point lead in half going into the locker room, 19-16.
“We had a chance to hold for a last shot and instead, they hit a wide-open 3. That’s a huge momentum swing,” said Paramus head coach Scott Papetti. “I thought we played pretty well and we were in control for most of the half, but were only up three. In the third quarter, Bergenfield just came out and did whatever they wanted offensively. They got layup after layup. By the time we started playing with the level of intensity that you need to win, it was too late. You have to play like that for a full 32 minutes, not a few minutes here and a few minutes there.”
Sam Torres drove for a layup and teammates Dani LaPorta and Nicole Henderson followed with two more in succession as Bergenfield turned a 3-point deficit into a 3-point lead, 28-25, by the end of the third quarter.
The Lady Bears led by as many as five on three different occasions in the final stanza only to see Paramus climb back to within a point each time, the last one with under a minute to play. With 6.2 seconds left, the Spartans had time for one last shot. Julia Koenemund’s 3-pointer appeared to be online but ended up just off the mark as Torres grabbed the rebound and Bergenfield escaped with the win.
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Haleigh Martin and Bergenfield improved to 8-12 on the season. |
Torres led all players with 12 points and Henderson added 11 for Bergenfield (8-12). Nicole DiPasquale helped lead the fourth-quarter surge scoring six of her team-high eight points for Paramus (10-12). Colantino also had eight, while Jackie Helm and Koenemund each added 7.
With all the pressure-packed games in the rear-view mirror, the seniors on each team are focused on finishing the season in a positive manner.
“We haven’t played as well as we’ve wanted to this season, but it feels good to get a win at home,” said Torres, a senior shooting guard. “We have some hard teams in our league and we lost some close games to some very good teams. This team enjoys being around each other though and we still work hard every day to get better. We have a lot of pride and hopefully we can finish the rest of our games strong just as we did tonight.”
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