Monday,
December 21, 2015
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Senior Madison Kahn scored 10 points for Northern Highlands, which improved to 2-0 on the season with a 55-36 win over Westwood at the Hoops4Autism Tournament on Sunday in Old Tappan. |
OLD TAPPAN – Entering the past couple of seasons, Northern Highlands had been thought of as one of a handful of programs with the potential to win the Bergen County Tournament and make a deep run in the state tournament up to and including a trip to the state finals in Toms River. The Highlanders have had multiple Division 1 players pass through Allendale in the past decade and were county champs in 2014. This year there were whispers that maybe they were falling back to the pack a little bit, especially after one of two returning starters, junior Tori Reich, was lost for the season due to injury.
But once the games actually begin, all of that is just outside noise. The expectations inside the program have not changed at all.
“We have a lot of potential. With Tori out for season it is tough, but it opens the door for other kids who are going to get the chance to fill in,” said Highlander head coach Al Albanese. “We always talk about [winning the] league first, then getting into the counties and making a nice run and then making a good showing in the states. We chose a really hard schedule with Saddle River Day, I[mmaculate] C[onception], Paramus Catholic and this game. That is the only way we are going to get better.”
The ‘this game’ that Albanese mentioned was Sunday’s 55-36 win over defending North 1, Group 2 state sectional champion Westwood in the finale of the four-game Hoops4Autism Tournament held on Sunday at Northern Valley/Old Tappan.
And the Highlanders were impressive as they used a high-pressure defense to jump out to a 17-2 lead, withstood Westwood’s comeback attempt late in the first half and hit the gas again to start the third quarter on the way to a comfortable victory, their second straight to start the season after an opening night with over Paramus.
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Samantha McClutchy had 15 points for Westwood, which is now 1-1 after an opening night win over Ridgefield Park. |
While a team grows up around her, Highlands does have an anchor in senior Emily Bonafacic, who gives her team an inside presence that can score from the low blocks or from the high post. She can also erase mistakes in the back as she did early as the Highlanders pressed their way to the early lead. Bonafacic, Sarah Minchin, Madison Kahn, Madison Grossman, Kira Boyer and Haley Litwin all made at least one first quarter field goal as Northern Highlands went up 15-2 in the first five minutes and led 19-5 at the end of the first quarter.
“We lost Tori and a lot of really great seniors from last year, but I think our team chemistry has really kept us together and that is a big part of being a good team,” said Bonafacic. “And we have a lot of younger girls who have stepped up to the plate and taken advantage of the opportunities.”
To be fair two Westwood, it is not at full strength either and the piece that it is currently missing is an awfully good one. Senior Jaide Hinds-Clarke, who has already accepted a scholarship to play at Division 1 University of Richmond, is in a walking boot. She missed the Cardinals’ opening night win, a fourth quarter comeback against Ridgefield Park, and will be reevaluated by her doctor on December 27. The hope is that she can return early in the New Year and will be fully healthy in plenty of time for the Cardinals to make a run at defending their sectional title.
But without Hinds-Clarke, the Cardinals are down to just one returning starter in Samantha McClutchy, who got it going in the second quarter and helped get her team back in the game. She opened the second period with a step-in layup and that kicked off a 16-6 run that lasted the entire quarter and got the Cardinals back to within 25-21 at halftime. McClutchy’s slicing layup with four seconds left capped the rally and had momentum squarely on Westwood’s side heading into the locker room.
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Highlands' Emily Bonafacic scored 10 third quarter points to help her team pull away for good. |
But it was Highlands that returned to the floor with on the front foot. Kahn, a senior guard whose role is increased this season, opened the third quarter scoring with a nifty runner, Kira Boyer, a senior co-captain, followed that up with a steal and a turn-around jumper. Bonafacic then put together a dominant five minute stretch that pretty much put the game away. She scored in transition to make it a 10-point lead at 31-21, scored on a drive to the basket to push the lead back into double digits for good at 33-22 and then scored inside of an in-bounds play. Not done, Bonafacic blocked a shot that led directly to Litwin’s fastbreak layup and then scored the final four points of the fourth quarter with a fastbreak bucket of her own and then by finishing a drive started with a power dribble from the free throw line.
Highlands led 41-24 after three quarters, led by as many 21 in the fourth quarter on the way to its second straight win to start the season.
Bonafacic led all scorers with 20 points and Kahn had 10. The rest of the Highlanders’ scored was shared between Minchin (7 points), Boyer (6 points), Grossman (5 points), Litwin (5 points) and freshman Brianne Davis, who made a fourth quarter field goal.
While Highlands (2-0) has a lot of holes to fill, it is doing it with talented players like Boyer and Kahn, two seniors, and Grossman and Minchin, two juniors, whose blocked path to extended varsity minutes in the past says more about the Highlands program, which has been loaded for a while now.
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Rachel Bussanich, one of two freshmen in the Westwood rotation in the absence of Jaide Hinds-Clarke, scored 4 points. |
“We are the underdogs this year, which is a little different, but we are going to come out and prove people wrong,” said Minchin. “We are very together, we work hard on our pressed and on-the-ball defense and those are the things that can help us win games.
McClutchy led Westwood (1-1) with 15 points. Brooklyn Colon, who was slowed by foul trouble, added 6. Carlye Danziger had 5, freshman Rachel Bussanich made two field goals, Shannon Monaghan made a 3 and Amanda Boes had 2 points for the Cardinals, who are just trying to hang in there until Hinds-Clarke gets back in action.
“We have some really young kids. Without Jaide we have one varsity starter returning, so we are throwing some kids into the fire to see who can hang at the varsity level and we are trying to get some wins along the way,” said Westwood head coach Charlie Collis. “It’s a little bit of a tightrope, but we still think that we can play with a lot of these teams. We still have some size, we have some kids that can play, they just need to get out there and get some experience on the court.”
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