Sunday,
January 31, 2016
By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
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Senior point guard Emily Crevani scored the 1,000th point of her career and helped lead Old Tappan into the Bergen County Tournament quarterfinals in a 54-38 win over Indian Hills on Saturday. |
HILLSDALE – After a short jumper by Northern Valley/Old Tappan's four-year starting point guard Emily Crevani in the second quarter of Saturday's Bergen County Tournament game against Indian Hills, she looked around bewildered as a buzzer sounded to stop play and her teammates were on their way to congratulate her.
Having just reached 1,000 points for her career, Crevani had cemented herself as one of the best to come through the halls of one the more successful girls' basketball programs in Bergen County. But her focus was not on an individual milestone. Crevani was caught up not in the moment, but in the task of getting her team another step further in the county tournament.
Locked in a tight battle at halftime and with virtually the entire Golden Knights starting five in foul trouble, Crevani took control of the game and refused to let her team fall victim to another Indian Hills upset bid.
Crevani scored 12 of her game-high 19 points in the fourth quarter as second-seeded Northern Valley/Old Tappan pulled away to reach the Bergen County quarterfinals with a 54-38 victory over No. 15 seed Indian Hills at Pascack Valley High School in Hillsdale.
“We didn't defend very well in the first half and our rotations were bad. Indian Hills took advantage of it,” said Old Tappan head coach Brian Dunn. “We had to make defense a priority in the second half and that is when we started to settle down.”
Kailyn Systma got the Golden Knights off to a hot start hitting her first three shots from the field, including a 3-pointer in a 9-2 run to open the game. However, Systma and 6-foot-2 center Alex George both picked up two fouls in the first quarter. It was an issue Old Tappan had to deal with all game long with George heading to the bench for the remainder of the half and Systma doing the same after picking up her third foul in the second quarter.
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Amy Weisse scored 9 points for Indian Hills, which, after upsetting Ramsey in the opening round, fell to 9-7. |
Early in the second quarter, Kelsey McLaughlin (one of Bergen County's top defensive players) made a steal off an inbounds pass underneath the Braves' basket and fed Crevani for the short jumper. It not only gave the Golden Knights a seven-point lead, but gave Crevani 1,000 for her career.
“Honestly, I never kept track of how many points I have or how close I was to 1,000,” said Crevani, also a first-team all-Bergen selection in soccer. “I'm not really into individual stuff like that. As a point guard, my worry is how we play each possession. As long as we're playing good defense and the offense is running well, then we have a good chance to win.”
Indian Hills hung tough and made a run late in the half to put a scare into the Golden Knights. Annalee Boggio’s conventional 3-point play (the Braves' third 3-point play of the quarter), trimmed the lead down to four by halftime, 29-25.
“We can't depend on our shots falling all the time, we have to be a consistent team defensively,” added Crevani. “Defense always has to come first. If we're going to win games like this we have to get stops on defense. When we started getting stops on defense in the second half, our lead got bigger and things started going our way.”
With the starting five back on the floor for Old Tappan to start the second half, the lead quickly grew. Once again it was Systma who provided the spark in a what seemed to be a repeat of the first half. She nailed her first three shots of the quarter, including a 3. Foul trouble once again became a problem with Systma picking up her fourth foul midway through the third quarter.
A 12-point lead was sliced down to eight on a basket by Amy Weisse to start the fourth, but the Braves never got any closer. Crevani answered with a 3-pointer from the corner to bump the lead back up to double-digits. The University of Tampa-bound speedster was in complete control during the final period. She did not have a turnover in the period and hit six of seven free throws in the final minutes.
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Sophie Downey gave Old Tappan a lift off the bench by grabbing 7 rebounds and scoring 5 points. |
Along with scoring her 1,000th point among her game-high 19 points, Crevani added four rebounds, four assists, and three steals for Northern Valley/Old Tappan (12-3). Despite playing limited minutes, Systma scored 16 points. Ariana Chipolone added eight points and five rebounds. Sophie Downey gave the Knights a big lift off the bench by leading all players with seven rebounds to go with five points.
Weisse, Kayla Connelly, and Boggio finished with nine, eight, and seven points, respectively, for Indian Hills (9-7).
Old Tappan will face the winner of Sunday’s Round of 16 game between defending Bergen County champion Immaculate Heart Academy and Ridgewood in the quarterfinals next Saturday at Fair Lawn High School. Getting to the Final 4 of the BCT has been something the Golden Knights have been striving for all season.
“We're excited to be in the county quarterfinals, but we have a lot of work to do,” said Dunn. “We were really flat-footed in the first half and we can't afford to do that. We've played a ton of really good teams, so we have experience and we know what to do. As we move forward, we can't put our defenders inside into bad spots where they have to foul. When our minds are in the right place and we focus on what's important on the floor, we're fine. We have to do a better job of that this week, myself included.”
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