Wednesday,
February 26, 2014
By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
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Freshman Casey Burdy scored a game-high 16 points for Tenafly, which snapped an 11-game losing streak with a 48-43 win over Indian Hills. |
TENAFLY – To say the end of her senior season has been tough is an understatement for Tenafly's Lanie Shalek. After earning an at-large bid to the Bergen County Tournament with wins over Pascack Valley and Northern Valley/Old Tappan (both who won first-round county tournament games), it looked like the Lady Tigers' season was on the upswing. Unfortunately, they were eliminated from the BCT with a loss to Pascack Hills followed by even worse news that starting guard Samantha Henderson would be out for the year with an injury.
That sent the Tigers into a tailspin in which they lost 11 straight games heading into Tuesday night's matchup against Indian Hills. Shalek did not want to end her high school career on a losing note. The senior forward made sure both she and her teammates would have at least one last chance to celebrate on their home court.
After Indian Hills whittled a 13-point halftime deficit down to one inside the final minute, Shalek refused to let her team lose and closed out the game where she is most comfortable, at the free-throw line. She nailed four free-throws in the final 25 seconds, including a pair with 3.4 seconds to play, as Tenafly snapped an 11-game losing streak with a 48-43 upset over Indian Hills at Tenafly High School.
“It's been a really frustrating season, but it feels great to have that winning feeling again,” said Shalek, who was 8-for-10 from the charity stripe in the final three minutes of the fourth quarter. “It's nerve-wracking at the end, but we kept fighting and we never gave up.”
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Jules Oehrlein led Indian Hills with 11 points. |
Indian Hills got off to a hot start, hitting each of its first three attempts from beyond the 3-point arc. Emily Shlapak nailed a pair, with the latter of those two giving the Braves a 9-4 lead. Tenafly battled back behind solid play from a pair of freshmen, Casey Burdy and Bella Greenstone. Greenstone scored all seven of her points and Casey Burdy hit a pair of baseline jumpers to cap a 14-1 run as Tenafly raced out to a 32-19 halftime lead.
“We couldn't get anything going in the second quarter and Tenafly was able to execute on both ends,” said Indian Hills' head coach Julie Halejian. “I thought we fought really hard to get back in the game, but you can't play two out of four quarters well and expect to win. Right now we're struggling to be a four-quarter team and we need fix that before our state game on Monday.”
Down 13 at the half, the Braves caught a break when Tenafly's defensive standout and one of the Tigers' most reliable ball handlers, Sofie Check, picked up her fourth foul just four seconds into the third quarter. That allowed them to gradually chip away at the lead, cutting it to seven heading into the fourth.
Shalek had a rough stretch in the fourth quarter with a rare pair of missed free-throws and two turnovers that led to baskets by Indian Hills. When Jules Oehrlein hit a 3-pointer from the corner to cut the lead to one, 44-43, with 58 seconds left, the Tigers could have put their heads down thinking that another defeat was a near certainty.
There was no wavering in their confidence though as the Tigers showed poise down the down the stretch, especially from seniors Shalek and Abby Golodik. Despite the Braves desperately trying to get a steal, Tenafly was able to move the ball around for 33 seconds until Shalek was fouled with 25 seconds left. She calmly hit a pair of free-throws then knocked down two more with 3.4 seconds left to ice the game as the Tigers finally had a reason to smile when the buzzer sounded.
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Lanie Shalek made four free throws in the final 25 seconds to help Tenafly seal the upset. |
“We've been working really hard in practice even though we've been losing and tonight it finally clicked,” added Shalek. “Getting some momentum at the beginning gave us a lot of confidence. Our whole team wanted to get a win tonight and it's a sigh of relief that we finally got one.”
Burdy led all players with 16 points, while Shalek added a double-double of 14 points and 12 rebounds for Tenafly (5-15). Oehrlein scored 11 points for Indian Hills (11-13). Julia Ferraro and Madison Levine chipped in with nine and eight points, respectively.
The win was equally as gratifying for Tenafly head coach Jeff Koehler, who recently returned to the team following the passing of his father last week. Preaching to your players to work hard every day is a bit more difficult after losing one of your leading scorers and going on a long losing streak. Koehler knew that his team had it in them to get a quality win or two before the season ended and last night they delivered.
“We got a lot of contributions from players at different times in the game,” said Koehler. “Lanie will go down with the highest career free-throw percentage in school history and she stepped up big in that last minute. I thought some of our players who aren't as experienced really shined too. Janae (Mayo), Bella Greenstone, and Casey (Burdy) all handled the pressure well and our seniors showed a lot of leadership against their pressure.”
“You keep pushing the kids every day and sometimes the kids look at you like, 'Why are you doing this?' It's the end of the year, you only have a week left. You always want to finish strong and play for the moment. It only means so much without an example to show, 'this is why you work as hard as you do'. Not many teams get to win their last game and we have a chance to do that. I think this win will rejuvenate us and give us something to look forward to.”
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