Monday,
December 22, 2014
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Andie Lennon made a key steal in the midst of a High Point comeback and it spurred Secaucus to a 71-62 win on Sunday at the Hoops4Autism Benefit in Oradell. |
ORADELL – It takes experience in tight games, a high basketball IQ and, of course, the talent to pull off what the instincts were saying and Secaucus' senior point guard Andie Lennon has all of the above. Having seen a once 18-point lead dwindle to just one and High Point take possession with a chance to take its first lead of the game midway through the third quarter, Lennon saw the slightest opening and exploited it. She left her mark in the corner and sneaked in from the side of a High Point ball-handler who was trying to back her way into the lane.
Lennon swiped at the ball and knocked it free without fouling, grabbed the now loose ball and picked up her head to see Julia Peschetti heading in the opposite direction before the Cougars even knew they had lost possession. Lennon sent in Peschetti for an uncontested layup that changed the momentum. Lennon then hit a 3-pointer and three free throws before the third quarter expired in Secaucus' hard-fought 71-62 win at the Hoops4Autism Benefit played on Sunday at River Dell High School.
“I felt like I had to do something to stop their run. I had to find a way to get the team going because we might have let down a little bit after getting the big lead early,” said Lennon. “We had to get the momentum back on our side and then keep going from there.”
The game was a matchup of two teams that were grateful for the chance to play it. High Point is the Sussex County power that is not often challenged in league games and not often welcomed as an out of league opponents by those that might be looking for lesser challenges. Secaucus runs into similar scheduling issues, so this was a chance for both to test themselves on a neutral floor against like competition.
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April Peterson, High Point's lone senior, scored a team-high 22 points for the Cougars, who came from 18 points back to make a game of it. |
Secaucus, with Lennon, who entered the season having already accepted a scholarship to Caldwell University, and Julia McClure, the senior who signed with Division 1 Wagner University on Saturday, looked like a runaway winner early on. The Patriots took a 10-point lead, 19-9, on a Lennon 3-pointer with 21 seconds left in the first quarter and were up 30-12 when McClure put back her own miss with 6:46 left in the first half.
High Point, with two freshmen – Margo Peterson and Emily Mulvoy – in the starting lineup, was in trouble. Head coach Chris Dexter was forced to bring back standout Madalyn Smith, who had already been whistled for three personal fouls, and the Cougars were still behind by 18 at 35-17 when Lennon went coast-to-coast for a layup.
“It is hard to simulate a team like Secaucus in practice. They have unbelievable guards and they are just so quick all over the place,” said Dexter. “It took us four or five minutes for us to figure out how hard we were going to have to work. We came down here to get a look at a quality team and that was exactly what we got.”
What High Point also got was a personal 7-0 run by senior April Peterson and a free throw from Smith to get back within single digits. When Smith answered a a Kendall Caruso 3 with one of her own 21 seconds before the buzzer, the Cougars were down 40-31 heading into the break.
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Secaucus senior Julia McClure signed with Division 1 Wagner on Saturday and then scored a game-high 27 points. |
“I was really impressed with that High Point team. A lot of teams, down 18, would just quit. A lot of times when we get teams down 18 it quickly goes to 25 or 30. Not them,” said Secaucus head coach John Sterling. “They cut it down before half and, in the third quarter, they really took it to us. Maybe we were a little sluggish, but give them the credit. I don't know what they shot from the free throw line (23 of 28) but it seemed like they never missed and they made us pay for every foul.”
Secaucus (2-0) scored the first three points of the third quarter, but High Point (1-1) answered right back with an 11-0 run capped by Margo Peterson's conventional 3-point play that got the Cougars all the way back to within 43-42 and they then cleared the defensive glass to earn a possession with the chance to take the lead.
But that was Lennon got in the way and made the steal and assist that kicked off a 14-2 run with all but two of those points coming from either Lennon or McClure. That stretched the Patriots' lead back to 13 before Loree Tallamy's 3-pointer finally ended the spurt and left High Point trailing 57-47 heading into the fourth quarter.
McClure hit a 3 with 5:28 left to maintain the 10-point lead at 62-52 before High Point made a final rally. Four straight points by Smith and a 3 by Peterson with 3:37 left got High Point back to within three points for the final time, but McClure answered with two free throws and Kristina Ulrich made a layup out of the spread with 2:03 left. Smith picked up her fifth foul on a charge the next time down the floor and Secaucus had officially held off the challenge, one that was welcomed heading into the competitive Joe Poli Tournament later this week at Pascack Valley.
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Despite early foul trouble, High Point junior Madalyn Smith finished with 15 points. |
April Peterson, the only senior on the roster, led High Point with 22 points. Smith (15 points) and Margo Peterson (10 points) made it three Cougars in double figures.
“Win or lose, this was the kind of game we wanted to play. We did some things well, we saw what we need to work on and it is the kind of game that gets you ready for the state tournament down the road,” said Dexter. “In our group are teams like Teaneck, Ramapo, Northern Highlands and other good teams, so we needed a good early season game like this to see where we were at.”
McClure (27 points) and Lennon combined to score 49 of Secaucus' 71 points, but the other Patriots have a feel for the right time to provide support. Ulrich (8 points) was 3 of 4 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter, Kendall Caruso scored all 6 of her points in the first half to help build the early lead and Peschetti (5 points) had maybe the biggest bucket of the game on the run-out after Lennon's key steal. Freshman Lindsey Mack scored the only three points that Secaucus got from its bench.
This Secaucus team is a tight-knit group. McClure and Lennon and Caruso, along with Ashlee Bayon, make up a senior class that has been knocking on the door of state sectional and Hudson County championships for the last few years and they are not shying away from the fact that this final go-round is trophy or bust.
“This team has been together since third or fourth grade and we have been together through league championships and state tournament and county tournament losses,” said Lennon. “I'd like to finish my career with a nice Hudson County championship at least and we all feel that way. That is definitely what we are shooting for.”
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