Wednesday,
December 31, 2014
By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
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Julia McClure finished with a double-double of 19 points and 11 rebounds as Secaucus won the Joe Poli Tournament with a 51-48 win over Old Tappan. |
HILLSDALE – The Joe Poli Holiday Tournament has often attracted top competition over the years and teams do not necessarily accept the invitation with the main goal of winning it. The idea is to play three competitive games that will toughen up a team that has deep county and state tournament runs as their main priorities for the season. But after upset wins in the semifinals, Poli finalists Secaucus and Northern Valley/Old Tappan now had their sights set on a new goal: Winning the tournament and making a statement heading into 2015.
Secaucus got contributions from its entire lineup. Kristina Ulrich provided the Patriots with a much-needed third scoring option and Julia McClure nailed a big 3-pointer with three minutes remaining that provided enough breathing room for Secaucus to become the first Group 1 team ever to win the Joe Poli Tournament with a 51-48 triumph over Northern Valley/Old Tappan at Pascack Valley High School in Hillsdale.
“We've been an aggressive team all season and we had to be that again tonight,” said Ulrich. “We don't have a lot of height but we keep attacking the basket and trying to make something happen. Once we got that momentum in the third quarter we started playing our game.”
Old Tappan pulled an huge semifinal upset over pre-tourney favorite Northern Highlands, the defending Bergen County champion, in the semifinals. Secaucus followed by using a fourth-quarter run to knock off Pascack Valley on its home floor.
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Kailyn Sytsma scored a team-high 19 points for Old Tappan. |
The Poli final had the feel of a county or state tournament game right from the opening tap with both teams playing physical and diving for loose balls with reckless abandon. Secaucus grabbed an early lead but Emily Crevani's pull-up jumper at the first-quarter buzzer trimmed it to three, 10-7.
The Golden Knights trailed for most of the first half until a a pair of 3-pointers from the corner by Kailyn Sytsma to take their largest lead of the game (four points) before McClure's driving layup cut that lead in half going into the locker room, 23-21, for halftime.
It was merely one basket but McClure's bucket in the final seconds of the half gave the Patriots some momentum that carried over into the second half. Ulrich nailed a 3-pointer as did McClure before an acrobatic layup by Ulrich, a junior guard, put Secaucus up double-digits, 38-28, late in the third quarter.
“We had a few possessions early in the third quarter on both ends that hurt us,” said Northern Valley/Old Tappan head coach Brian Dunn. “We didn't get good shots and gave them a couple of open looks that a good team is going to knock down. We played hard, we just didn't the little things at times that you need to win close games. This was a tough game between two evenly matched teams. In this tournament, your weaknesses get exposed and you find out exactly what you need to work on.”
Old Tappan refused to fade and made it a one-possession game thanks to a junior guard of its own, Ariana Chipolone. She hit a pair of jumpers in the final minute of the third quarter to keep the Golden Knights within striking distance before hitting another short jumper to cut the Patriots' lead to two, 42-40, with still over four minutes to play. McClure answered as she scored inside and then nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the key to make it 47-40.
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Christina Ulrich scored 14 points for Secaucus, which is off to a 5-0 start to its season. |
Crevani hit a 3-pointer with 22 seconds left to make things interesting with Old Tappan down three, 48-45. After Ulrich missed a free-throw, Kendall Caruso hustled to track down the rebound before Andie Lennon got fouled and nailed two free-throws to ice the game.
“I thought we started making excuses in the first half and we took more responsibility for their play in the second half,” said Secaucus head coach John Sterling. “The difference was immediate in how much better we started playing. We boxed out better, we were playing better defense, and playing together in those aspects definitely makes our offense better.”
McClure finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds for Secaucus (5-0). Ulrich added 14 points and Lennon had 10. Sytsma was 4-of-5 from 3-point range on her way to a career-high 19 points for Northern Valley/Old Tappan (3-2). Like Secaucus, the Golden Knights' top three scorers had 19, 14, and 10 points. Chipolone pumped in 14 points, while Crevani had 10 (six of those coming in the final 22 seconds).
Now with a Holiday Tournament title against top competition in hand, the Patriots feel this is just the start of something special.
“This tournament is filled with good teams and it's a big accomplishment to beat three good teams,” said McClure, who recently signed with Division 1 Wagner College. “You still have a lot to work on and improve upon, but we feel like this is a good springboard going into our league schedule. This team has been playing together since basically third grade. We want to go out this season with a bang and winning a tournament like this is a great start towards doing that.”
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