Friday,
March 14, 2014
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Brielle Kelly scored all 22 of her team's third quarter points and finished with a career-high 38 as West Morris Central knocked off Northern Highlands, 67-63, in the Group 3 state semifinals on Thursday night. |
FRANKLIN LAKES – There are good nights and then there are nights like the one West Morris Central senior Brielle Kelly had on Thursday night in the Group 3 state semifinals. Up against Northern Highlands, the Bergen County champion with a trio of 6-footers in its starting lineup, Kelly decided the Highlanders were just not big enough to stop her. West Morris scored 22 points in the third quarter and all 22 of them were scored by Kelly, a senior who will play next season at Division 2 Mansfield University. Kelly finished with a career-high 38 points, 31 of them in the second half, and West Morris needed everyone of them.
“We wanted this win so bad for my team, we all did, so I was just going to keep attacking. We could get some fouls called, we could make some shots and everything would fall into place,” said Kelly, who got just about everything to fall in the basket as she was 8-for-9 from the floor and 5-for-5 from the free throw line in the third quarter alone.”We don't see Highlands in our conference, so we didn't know that much about them. We did know they were big, but we knew the best way to go was to attack them and try to put them in foul trouble.”
The plan worked as Northern Highlands' starting center Melissa Heath was called for two fouls in the first quarter and a third 2:24 into the second quarter. West Morris followed its game plan to a T, got an all-time performance from Kelly, made three of its four 3-point attempts and shot 20 of 27 from the free throw line as a team and still had to sweat right to the final buzzer. Northern Highlands showed just how tough a team it really is before the best season in program history came to an on the short side of a 67-63 score at Ramapo High School in Franklin Lakes. Meanwhile, West Morris is heading to a State final for the first time in its history.
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Senior Madison Dunbar finished her stellar high school career with a team-high 21 points for Highlands. |
“We played against [IHA's Caitlin] Roche, we played against [Teaneck's Kayla] Gibbs, we played against the girl from [Immaculate Conception Sam Feuhring], all really good players, and none of them did anything close to what [Kelly] did against us tonight. She had the game of her career and probably the game of her life. She didn't miss anything. ” said Northern Highlands head coach Al Albanese. “But even with that said, we were right there the whole way. We had a lead in the fourth quarter.”
It was back and forth just about the whole way and the game was played at a high level. West Morris scored the final five points of an up-and down first quarter to take a 19-14 lead and held it until a 5-0 Northern Highlands spurt in a two-minute span midway through the second quarter. Rachel Jubelt hit a shot jumper from the corner in transition, Emily Bonafacic made a free throw and Madison Dunbar, the smallest player on the floor, put back her own missed shot in the midst of all that height in the lane to put the Highlanders up 26-25.
Having sat with foul trouble for more than five minutes, Heath was reinserted with 21 seconds left in the half and scored the final bucket of the quarter at the buzzer as Highlands held a 32-30 lead at the intermission.
“We knew how good Northern Highlands was, we had seen them play and I knew that we were in for a tough game, but I also knew that we were ready. I had confidence in my girls no matter what the score was at any given time,” said West Morris head coach Fran Gavin. “You have to give both teams credit, it was a great high school basketball game. High level basketball played late in the playoffs by two teams that really wanted it. That is what this was.”
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Paige Burton (13 points) gave West Morris a solid second scoring option. |
Despite all of Kelly's brilliance – and make no mistake, she was brilliant – West Morris could not extend its lead. In fact, with Heath playing the full third quarter without picking up a fourth foul, Highlands gave as good as it got. Heath's turn over her right shoulder and left-handed finish gave Highlands a 51-49 lead before Kelly gave the Wolfpack a one-point edge heading into the fourth quarter with her lone 3-pointer of the night.
Caroline Lovisolo opened the final period with a 3-point play that gave Highlands a 54-52 lead and Nicole Miko's lone field goal off the game came off an inbounds play and gave NH a five-point advantage, which matched its largest of the game, with 4:42 to go. West Morris answered by scoring the next 8 points in a two-minute span and Kelly finished the run with a nifty left-handed flip in traffic to give her team a 60-57 lead with 2:08 to go.
It was still a 3-point lead, 62-59, with just under one minute to play after Kelly made both ends of the one-and-one and it was Highlands' next two possessions that were costly. They threw the ball away for a turnover that led to a Kelly free throw that made it a two-possession game and rushed a 3-pointer that led to another Kelly free throw with 26 seconds left.
After that, time just simply ran out on the best season in the history of Northern Highlands girls basketball.
“Going into this season, I couldn't have imagined any of this happening. It was in the back of my mind that we would have a good team, that we would be good this year, but we have gone above and beyond that,” said Dunbar, the senior point guard who will play next year and study at the University of Chicago. “I am so happy with this whole season. This whole team is so special to me because we have accomplished so much. I still think we kind of went out on top. We lost to a good team, but we made it so far.”
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Melissa Heath battled early foul trouble but still finished with 18 points for Highlands. |
Dunbar (21 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists), Heath (18 points, 4 rebounds) and Lovisolo (10 points, 6 rebounds) all finished in double figures for Highlands. Bonafacic scored 5 of her 6 points in the second half, Jubelt also had 6 points to go along with her usual effort on defense that produced 3 steals. Miko scored the other three points for the Highlanders, who finished up with a 28-4 record.
“This was the time of the season where you can't afford to lose a game and, unfortunately, I can't go back to the gym or to the drawing board to correct things. That is the hard part,” said Albanese. “But as far as this season goes, everybody thought we were going to be mediocre after we lost Jackie [Roeneke to graduation, but I knew we were going to surprise some people. This whole season we lost four games by a think a matter of 10 or 12 points. It was a great run.”
Kelly's 38 points were the story for West Morris, which will play South Jersey champion Woodrow Wilson (Camden) for the outright Group 3 state title and a spot in the Tournament of Champions, but the Wolpack got plenty of other key contributions. Paige Burton made two 3-pointers and finished with 13 points to provide a solid second option and Illissa Webb (5 points) and Sarah Singer (7 points) combined to scored all 12 of their points in the first half before Kelly simply took over in the second. Kendall Ballotti and Synder Sapir split the other 4 points for West Morris, which improved to 26-2 on the season.
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