Thursday,
March 13, 2014
By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
|
|
Lindsey Rogers (21) scored a game-high 16 points for IHA, which won its fourth straight Non-Public North A state sectional title with a resounding 63-21 win over Mt. St. Dominic on Wednesday night. |
PATERSON – A look at the records of the two teams in Wednesday night's Non-Public North A final and it appeared to be a complete mismatch. Immaculate Heart Academy is the four-time defending section champ while Mount St. Dominic had an 8-21 record coming into the game. However, IHA could not take a team lightly that pulled three road upsets to get to this point. That included a win over Paramus Catholic, a team that beat IHA earlier in the season. In their three state tournament wins, Mount St. Dominic got off to hot starts and rode that wave all the way to victory.
Led by Caitlin Roche and Lindsey Rogers, the Blue Eagles were not about to be Mt. St. Dom's third upset victim in a row and got off to a hot start of their own with a smothering defensive effort.
Roche nailed a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to end the first quarter and Rogers scored six points during a 15-0 spurt as top-seeded IHA allowed just six points over a 24-minute stretch and tripled up the opposition with 63-21 romp over No. 10 seed Mount St. Dominic at John F. Kennedy High School in Paterson.
“It's always a really good feeling to win the section,” said Rogers. “When the ball goes up it's anybody's game so we had to go out and give it our all. I thought our help defense was amazing tonight and we double-teamed really well. It's hard to beat us when we're all playing together as one. We felt good about our chances if we could keep them from getting offensive rebounds. It's awesome to get another chance to go back down to Toms River.”
Emily O'Connor helped Mount St. Dominic stay in the game early. Her basket to open the game gave the Blue Devils their only lead. The lefty's 18-foot jumper cut IHA's lead to 10-8 with less than three minutes to play in the quarter.
|
Emily O'Connor (10 points) scored nearly half of Mount Saint Dominic's 21 total points. |
Roche then kickstarted the big run as the Blue Eagles ran over a minute off the clock before Roche flared off of a high screen and knocked down a 3 from the wing as the first quarter buzzer sounded to make it 15-8.
IHA had a huge advantage inside and showed it in the second quarter. Rogers had six points and Katia Oge and Jordan Wilmoth (all three of them 6-foot forwards) each added a basket in the 13-0 run. Nadia Wooten's basket snapped the nine-minute scoreless drought for Mount St. Dominic. That did little to slow down the Blue Eagles' momentum as Stephanie Olear came off the bench to nail a 3-pointer from the corner as IHA was firmly in control by halftime, 30-10.
The third quarter was more of the same as IHA did not allow Mount. St. Dominic any open looks. The main catalyst was the play of Caitlin Roche, who has become a lock-down defender along with a dead-eye shooter from beyond the 3-point line. Lea Mendola came into the game averaging 21 points in three state tournament games for the Blue Devils. After holding Passaic County's leading scorer, DePaul's Nikki Johnson, to a single field goal in IHA's semifinal win, she held Mendola without a field goal and to just two points total with IHA taking an insurmountable 44-12 lead after three quarters.
“IHA is so good defensively, both their bigs and their guards, and they all run the floor well,” said Mount St. Dominic head coach Jerry Aquino. “We try to speed the game up on purpose an in attempt to get some turnovers and get the bigs on the other team tired being we usually have four guards on the floor. But when you are up against a team whose bigs can run the floor like that, it makes it a different game. From our perspective, we exceeded expectations with the schedule we play. To reach this game with this team is an accomplishment for both myself and our players. We just ran into a better team tonight in all phases of the game.”
|
Caitlin Roche scored 9 points for IHA, which will play St. John Vianney for the outright state title. |
Rogers led all players with 16 points to go with six rebounds and three steals for IHA (23-5). Oge has continued to assert herself late in the season with a 14-point, five rebound effort. Roche and Wilmoth added nine and eight points, respectively. O'Connor had nearly half of the scoring out put for Mount St. Dominic (8-22) with 10 of its 21 points.
IHA moves onto the Non-Public A state final on Saturday at Pine Belt Arena in Toms River. There they will face perennial South Jersey power St. John Vianney. Falling in the state final has been a thorn in the side for of the Blue Eagles for the past few years. Those teams had now Division 1 standouts Raquel Scott and Samantha Wilkes who the team leaned on heavily. With a more balanced squad on both ends of the floor this season, IHA head coach Steve Silver hopes this is the year where they get over the hump and win an elusive Non-Public A state title.
“Coming into the season, we felt like we could have three to four girls averaging 10 points per game, which is the type of balance you need to win a state title,” said Silver. “I thought our defense dictated the game and things started settling down for us nicely to start the second quarter tonight. We played with a lot of composure and we scored in a lot of different ways. If we share the ball, shoot the ball, and defend as well as we did today that makes us a pretty tough out.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS GAME.
TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT
OF THIS STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com. |