Monday,
December 22, 2014
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Samantha Rinaldi scored a game-high 18 points for Ridgefield Park, which bounced back from an opening night loss to beat Paramus, 39-36, in the Hoops4Autism Benefit on Sunday in Oradell. |
ORADELL – The season was barely 48 hours old and the Ridgefield girls basketball team was already facing a stretch of bad road. Coming off a double digit loss on opening night and entered into the ultra-competitive Joe Poli Tournament the day after Christmas, the Scarlets were facing what was a close to a must win game that can be found this early in the year when it took on Paramus on Sunday at the Hoops4Autism Benefit at River Dell High School.
With the graduation of Katherine Haines and Julie Rovito, the new era can't officially begin until the Scarlets put one in the win column.
“We needed this for a little bit of confidence,” said Ridgefield Park head coach Nicole Pucciarelli. “We had to get that first win.”
With points tough to come by for both sides and trailing by six points heading into the final quarter, the prospects for win No. 1 did not look all that bright for Ridgefield Park, which had been held to just 10 made field goals through the first three quarters. When shots are not falling from the field, at least those taken from inside the 3-point arc, Ridgefield Park was able to get enough uncontested ones from the free throw line to make up the difference.
The Scarlets went 7 of 10 from line in the fourth quarter and held Paramus to just four points in the final quarter to overtake the Spartans down the stretch. Ridgefield Park scored the final six points of the game and grabbed a 39-36 win that evens its record at 1-1 on the season.
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Senior Alexa Colontino scored 10 points to lead Paramus. |
“We lost two really big assets in Julie and Katherine and we know that as a group we all have to pick it up,” said Samantha Rinaldi, RP's junior guard who is being counted upon to fill that scoring void. “Tonight we were able to do it.”
The game was tied at 20 at halftime before Paramus made a bid to pull away. The largest lead of the game by either team to that point in the game was the six-point spread that Paramus opened at 15-9 in second quarter, but Paramus opened the third quarter with a 10-2 run. Alexa Colontino's pull-up jumper from the elbow gave the Spartans a 30-22 lead with 2:36 to play in the third and their lead was 32-26 heading into the final eight minutes.
Ridgefield Park had shot just three free throws through the first three periods and made just one of them. They had hung around four 3-pointers, matching their number of 2-point field goals through the first 24 minutes, but in the fourth quarter the Spartans started going to the basket. The surge of aggressiveness got RP to the line 10 times in the final quarter while Paramus did a lot of passing the ball around the perimeter in that same span.
“We have to get the ball to the basket. We are undersized, we don't have a post player to throw the ball into all the time,” said Pucciarelli. “ We have slow it down, look for a lane and get to the line.”
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Senior Ashley Castillo made two of Ridgefield Park's four 3-pointers. |
Jackie Helm did finish a drive to give the Spartans their final points of the game and a 36-33 lead with 2:01 to play, but Rinaldi, playing with four fouls for most of the fourth quarter, made two free throws as a reward for a hard drive and to cut the lead to one. After a Paramus turnover, Ashley Castillo got a floater in the lane to fall through to give Ridgefield Park the lead at 37-36 with 58 seconds left.
The teams then combined to miss three straight free throws before Danielle Sinclair made two with six seconds left to make it a three-point spread and Paramus' final shot, a 3 from the corner, was too long.
Colontino (10 points) was the lone Spartan in double figures followed by 9 by Karla Christo, 7 from Dara Devaney and 6 from Helm. Julia Koenemund and Kaitlyn Scrivanich each made a field goal for Paramus (0-2), which was a combined 10 of 14 from the free throw line despite getting just one fourth quarter attempt. Paramus did not make a 3-pointer in the game.
Rinaldi (18 points) and Castillo (10 points) each made two of RP's four 3-pointers. Sinclair (4 points), Kerri Tellian (3 points) and Dorian Capurso (2 points) and Jayda Garcia (2 points) provided the support and Ridgefield Park needed every bit of it.
“The girls that normally got get a lot of time really stepped up tonight and I think they are the ones that were the key to the game,” said Pucciarelli. “Garcia made a big steal and Allison Pasechnick came in a had some big rebounds. Those two girls that sometimes don't see the floor are probably the reason that we were able to pull out a win.”
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