Sunday, March 8, 2015

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Alisa Giordano helped lead Wood-Ridge's girls hoops program to its first ever section final with a 60-45 win over Midland Park in the North 1, Group 1 semifinals on Saturday.

WOOD-RIDGE – As the Wood-Ridge players walked to the locker room for halftime, the looks on their faces were not indicative of what the scoreboard indicated. The Blue Devils were up by five against pesky Midland Park, but they did not feel like that was any reason to celebrate. For the senior-laden Blue Devils playing in front of a huge home crowd, they knew that opportunities like this do not come around very often. After having a sizable lead for most of the second quarter, they needed to right the ship.

How quickly it came was a shock, however, as they needed just 47 seconds to regain control.

Senior captain Alisa Giordano led the team by example throughout the second half. She hit a rainbow 3-pointer on the first possession of the third quarter and had a conventional 3-point play on the next possession as top-seeded Wood-Ridge advanced to the girls basketball program's first-ever section final with a 60-45 triumph over fifth-seeded Midland Park in the North 1, Group 1 semifinals on Saturday at Wood-Ridge High School.

“Those shots early in the third quarter hurt us and we knew they had the capability of doing that,” said Kristy Victory, the Midland Park assistant coach who assumed the head coaching duties in place of the absent Sean O'Connor. “We made a couple of bad decisions defensively and those seemed to come back and bite us. Both teams worked hard, but they made more shots in stretches than we did.”

Midland Park was without O'Connor for an undisclosed reason but did not show any ill effects in the opening stanza. All 14 of the Panthers' first quarter points came from the perimeter, including a trio of 3-pointers by Julie Carey. The Blue Devils stayed with them step-for-step and took the lead for good, 15-14, on a buzzer-beating 3 from Bailey Wyrostek.

Elizabeth Vargas' 3-pointer had Midland Park to within 5 points at halftime.

That got the Blue Devils on a roll with consecutive layups by Allison Kronyak putting them ahead by as many as nine. They had the chance to hold for the last shot though but were unable to do that and the Lady Panthers made them pay. Elizabeth Vargas hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer of her own from the wing to cut the lead to 33-28 at the half.

“We were pretty upset that we were letting the lead slip away,” said Giordano. “Halftime was the break we needed. We addressed the issues we had defensively and we needed to communicate better. We wanted to push the pace and make them play faster than they wanted to.”

After scoring six points in a 16-minute first half, Giordano needed less than a minute to double that total. She nailed a 3 from the wing and followed with a tough drive and one, to swiftly bump the lead back up to 11. Midland Park got within nine on a jumper from Morgan Ress. Wood-Ridge answered back immediately with a corner 3 from Lindsey Hargrave and the Blue Devils' lead never dipped below double-digits again. That was largely do to the three-man weave executed beautifully by Giordano, Wyrostek and point guard Karina Tayaba.

“We had the clock on our side and we had to be patient,” said Tayaba. “We did a great job of staying calm, being confident, and playing our game. It's been a long four years and we didn't want to lose our last game on our court.”

Giordano led a balanced scoring attack with a game-high 20 points for Wood-Ridge (23-5). Tayaba had 14 points with Kronyak and Wyrostek adding 12 and 11 points, respectively.

Karina Tayaba scored 14 points for Wood-Ridge, which hosts Hasbrouck Heights in the section final.

Carey had 17 points and Thalia Ghalam had nine for Midland Park, which finished the season with a 15-10 record. The future is bright for the Panthers, who return their entire rotation next year.

As the top seed in North 1, Group 1, Wood-Ridge will get one last home game for the North 1, Group 1 crown. In their first-ever appearance in a section final, they will face No. 2 seed Hasbrouck Heights on Tuesday night at 7:00 P.M. The Blue Devils won both of the regular-season meetings, but they also know that those victories do not mean anything come Tuesday night.

“We feel confident coming into the final but we also know that it is something we've never experienced before,” said Wood-Ridge head coach Jesse Romano. “After losing in the first round of the states last year, we set the bar much higher. We won our league and we're making a great run here. This is what we've been playing for all season and we're happy we're making some noise.. We're excited to keep playing and to do to it in your own gym is a big advantage.”

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