Monday,
December 23, 2013
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Freshman Shannon Culloo scored a game-high 13 points for Pascack Valley, which evened it record at 1-1 with a 41-30 win over Glen Rock at the Hoops 4 Autism Benefit. |
RIVER DELL – In addition to the outside benefits of the many early season charity tournaments that have popped up across the state in recent years are more than a few on the court reasons why teams want to be involved. It's a win-win situation as money is raised for various good causes through the purity of high school sports and teams get to sort themselves out against out-of-league competition where wins and losses are not necessarily at a premium.
Both Pascack Valley and Glen Rock are changed teams this season and when they took the floor in the opener of the five-game Hoops 4 Autism Benefit at River Dell High School on Sunday, both teams needed competitive minutes of game play as much as anything else.
“We are a work in progress. Most years I am returning at least one player who has already made her mark on varsity basketball, but this is a fairly inexperienced group in the roles that they will play this year. It's really simple. We just want to be better tomorrow and we have a long way to go, ” said Pascack Valley head coach Jeff Jasper, he of the 908 career victories. “Sometimes teams are blessed and they get placed at the top of the hill and they take a few steps and it comes pretty easy. Sometimes are placed near the bottom and have to work really hard, foot-hold by foot-hold, to climb that hill and that is exactly where we are.”
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Freshman Kelly Lohr scored a team-high 9 points for Glen Rock. |
Glen Rock is also on the side-slope of the hill as it tries to match the accomplishments on last year's Panthers, who won the program's first state sectional championship in 25 years. Glen Rock has three seniors in this season's starting lineup – Morgan Foley, Taryn Dwyer and Krystina Rypkema -- although their roles are much different.
“We have that experience from last year, but most of the players returning were bench players on that team and now they have to take their starting roles and run with them,” said Dave Mosconi, who is in his 15th season as Glen Rock's head coach. “We have talent here but we still have to figure out who our shooters are, who our scorers are and we are kind of feeling that out because you can see that in scrimmages.”
Where Pascack Valley and Glen Rock differ is in there results from Opening Night. Glen Rock dismantled Elmwood Park to get its season off on the right foot while PV gave back a double-digit halftime lead before falling to Northern Valley/Demarest. If there was any desperation it came from the Indians, who held Glen Rock to just four first half field goals before breaking the game open in the third quarter on the way to a 41-30 win.
The first half was less than an offensive showcase as PV led 6-4 after the first quarter and 15-12 at the half despite the fact that it had made just three first half field goals and shot just 50-percent (8 of 16) from the free throw line. Glen Rock also struggled to throw the ball through the hoop as it made just 3 of 10 first half free throws, including just 1 of 8 in the second quarter.
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PV junior Jessica Powell scored all 6 of her points in the second half. |
But after the break, Pascack Valley (1-1), playing at a less deliberate pace on the offensive end than in the past couple of seasons, got it going by driving the ball to the basket, passing the ball well in the interior and, most importantly, knocking down some open shots.
Chrissy Loganchuk was rewarded for her hard take to the basket on the first possession of the second with two free throws and she made them both to kick off a 13-2 run for the Indians that lasted the length of the third quarter. Culloo hit a pull-up jumper, Else DiGiacopo converted an open look from the baseline and Jessica Powell's conventional three-point play gave the Indians their first double-digit lead at 24-14. Powell followed that up with a short jumper from the baseline and Loganchuk went baseline to give PV a 28-14 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Having scored as many points as it trailed by through three quarters, it was going to be tough for Glen Rock (1-1) to make up the ground, but the Panthers gave it a go as they finally got some shots to fall. The freshmen combination of Kelly Lohr and Lizzi Alba combined for six straight points to get the Panthers to within 10 points at 35-25 and they sneaked to within single digits at 35-27 after Dwyer's layup with 1:43 to play, but Culloo answered with a three-point play on the other end to put the game out of reach.
Culloo, who was not only given a starting spot in the starting lineup of historic PV program as a freshman, but she was also given the No. 22 jersey, reserved for special talents at the River Vale school and most recently worn by Heather Zurich, an all-time Bergen County great. Culloo led PV with 13 points and was the only player on either team to finish in double figures. Loganchuk finished with 8 points, Powell (6 points) did all of her damage after halftime and the rest of PV's offensive output was spread between Lisa Marcellari (4 points) DiGiacopo (3 points) and Amanda Verbraska, Lyndsay Grilo and Claire Dronzek, who scored two points apiece.
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Lee Maitner finished with 5 points for Glen Rock, which is now 1-1 on the season. |
“The kid Shannon Culloo is an amazing talent. She got the number 22 and you know that is important. She is going to be an outstanding player, but she is a freshman and there are going to be tons of things that she might be overwhelmed by before she figures it all out,” said Jasper. “I was pleased with [Jessica] Powell , she did great things, blocked a handful of shots and made some baskets. Our key is always going to be our guard play and Chrissy Loganchuk, an outstanding athlete and a tough kid, got a little bit more of a sense of urgency in the second half and played well. She can open up the game for us when she handles the ball and gets into the lane.”
Glen Rock's leading scorers were its two freshmen, Lohr (9 points) and Alba, who came off the bench to score 6. Lee Maitner (5 points) made one of the Panthers' three three-pointers and Dwyer Foley and McGara Dewan each scored two points.
“We couldn't hit any shot early and the foul shots killed us. You can't shoot like we did today against a Pascack Valley and expect to win and that is a lesson that we just learned,” said Mosconi. “This was a good game for us in the sense that it was an independent game, it was against a Group 3 team and that will give us power points even with the loss and we saw first hand the kinds of things we need to work on.”
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