Sunday,
February 15, 2015
By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
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Tess Kirinko kicked off a 9-0 run to start the game and West Milford never trailed on the way to a 42-35 win over Wayne Valley and the Passaic County semfiinals for the first time in over a decade. |
WAYNE – Having just earned a share of a league title for the first time in 19 years on Thursday, the West Milford girls basketball got a taste of success that has been missing from the program and that can become contagious. Instead of making a little bit of history earlier this week and calling it good, the Highlanders are looking for more.
It's been more than a decade since they last reached the Passaic County semifinals and had a chance to end that drought, too, when they traveled to Wayne Valley on Saturday afternoon.
Tess Kirinko hit her first two shots to spark a 9-0 run to open the game and fifth-seeded West Milford never trailed and held off a late surge to topple fourth-seeded Wayne Valley, 42-35, in the Passaic County quarterfinals.
West Milford set the pace on both ends of the floor, forcing three turnovers in the first three minutes of the game and turning all of them into points. Kirinko hit a jumper and then a three-pointer to get off to a hot start and Lanae Vroegindewey scored inside to cap the 9-0 run.
“We wanted to put the pressure on them from the beginning and we got pretty pumped up after getting a good start,” said Kirinko. “If I got an open shot, I took it. We had 100-percent intensity the entire game.”
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Wayne Valley's Sam Vogel scored all 10 of her points in the fourth quarter. |
Playing on its home floor, Wayne Valley rallied to tie the score early in the second quarter on a drive by Alexa Simonetti, but those were the last points of the quarter for the Indians as Kirinko and Michaela McLeod made the even the simplest of tasks difficult for the Indians’ guards. McLeod, a sophomore point guard, heated up on the offensive end of the floor as well scoring seven points in the final 2-plus minutes of the first half to give West Milford a 20-11 halftime lead.
“We knew they were going to focus on Tess so I had some chances to make something happen,” said McLeod, who finished 11 points. “I thought we were really strong on both sides of the ball. We really wanted this game and it’s a big deal to get to county semifinals, so we couldn’t let up.”
The Highlanders led by as many as 13 midway through the third quarter, but the Indians stayed within striking distance with six straight points from Simonetti. Sam Vogel scored all 10 of her points in the fourth quarter and her basket plus a free-throw on the next possession cut the WM lead to just four, 34-30, with 1:48 to play.
They never got any closer as Vroegindewey ripped down defensive rebounds on the next three possessions and all led to free-throws that iced the game and secured West Milford’s berth in the Passaic County semifinals.
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West Milford's Lanae Vroegindewey pulled down 13 rebounds for West Milford, which will play Eastside in next weekend's semifinal round. |
“We fought hard but we fell behind early and never got over the hump,” said Wayne Valley head coach Kathy Sinram. “West Milford came out playing at a faster pace than we were playing at. We did a good job to cut into the lead at the end. But we didn’t get second shots and as a team West Milford shoots foul shots really well.”
Kirinko finished with a team-high 13 points and held Wayne Valley’s standout point guard Taylor DeStefano scoreless in the second half. Vroegindewey (7 points) snatched down 10 of her game-high 13 rebounds in the second half for West Milford (14-7). Simonetti led all players with 15 points for Wayne Valley (8-10).
With nothing to lose in the Passaic County semifinals against No. 1 seed and defending champion Paterson Eastside, the Highlanders are excited for the opportunity to see how they measure up against one of the best teams in New Jersey.
“We were ready to play today and we’ll be ready to play next week, too,” said Vroegindewey. “Coach (Ray) Lacroix says that you want to be playing your basketball at this time of year. We feel like we’re doing that and we’re going to leave it all out on the court.”
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