Sophomore Gabriella Mittelman scored all 28 of her points in the second half and overtime of NV/Demarest's 79-71 win over rival NV/Old Tappan on Tuesday.
DEMAREST – Northern Valley/Demarest overcame a buzzer-beating, fourth quarter basket by NV/Old Tappan senior Maya Giordano to get past their district rival, 79-71, in overtime on Wednesday afternoon.
Demarest was led by junior Angie Tirado (34 points) and sophomore Gabriella Mittleman (28) as Tirado scored 20 of her points in the first half, while Mittleman scored all of her points in the second half and overtime.
“She’s been a gem,” Norsewomen head coach Jenny Jurjevic said of Tirado. “I haven’t seen her play since the seventh or eighth grade. She went to the Bronx and was playing basketball in New York. She came back to her home school and lives in Closter, so we are still getting acquainted with each other from early on.
“The cool thing is she’s embraced us with a warm welcome as much as we’ve embraced her. It’s been mutual. There are no frustrations - she’s selfless. The cool thing about her is she celebrates every moment. Bergen County basketball probably isn’t like where she was playing basketball before, where everything is loud and it’s a crazy environment. She gleans that level of composure and hype at the same time. If you look at her every possession she’s clapping, saying ‘let’s go,’ slapping everybody with a high five. If she misses shots she doesn’t shut down. She mentally is there for everybody else.”
Tirado ended a back-and-forth first quarter by draining a 3-pointer behind the circle surrounding the half-court line to tie the game 18-all heading into the second quarter. She laughed when she said she works on that shot all the time, especially before a game.
“Before we play a game we shoot half-court shots, just like that,” she said. “It was great. I had girls in front of me and I just let it go. I thought, ‘it might go in, it might go in.’ And there it was.”
Old Tappan senior Maya Giordano hit a buzzer-beater to send the game in to overtime.
Demarest opened the second quarter with a 6-0 run, including another trey by Tirado and a jumper by senior Taylor Miller. Old Tappan went on a run with two minutes to go as Maya Giordano scored twice, sandwiched between another basket by Miller, and a basket by Layla Giordano to close the half 32-30 in favor of Demarest.
The score remained close in the first two minutes of the third quarter, but then Mittleman caught fire.
“In the first half she missed some shots but she prevailed,” Jurjevic said. “Her mojo kind of came to her at halftime and her teammates hiked her up. Taylor Miller does an excellent job of doing that - sharing the mojo and hiking those kids up because she’s been in these pressure moments before. That’s why it’s important to have seniors like what we have.”
It’s also important to have underclassmen as freshman starter Deana Finkelstein proved as she scored 4 of her 10 points in the third quarter. She also grabbed some key rebounds to give Demarest extra scoring chances and the Norsewomen headed into the fourth quarter ahead, 53-48.
Old Tappan, however, is a veteran team that has balanced scoring and six players tallied points in the fourth quarter comeback.
Tirado extended Demarest’s lead with a 3-pointer but Old Tappan chipped away with two baskets by sophomore Sienna Drullinsky (12 points), a basket by sophomore Mia Derrico (5 points) and two free throws by senior Grayson Housley (8 points). Housley’s points gave Old Tappan a 61-60 lead, its first lead of the game since the first quarter.
Maya Giordano (22 points) scored 7 fourth quarter points, including the buzzer beater, as the Golden Knights completed the comeback.
“She lit us up,” Jurjevic said of Maya Giordano. “I understand that they’re twins but they both bring different things to the game. Layla Giordano (16 points) is more agile around the perimeter. And Maya Giordano knows her role. She gets those touches and on any given night she can put down those points. She is really a force to be reckoned with.”
The overtime period was all Demarest. It opened with an 8-0 run, including a back-breaking layup on a pinpoint pass inside from Miller to Mittleman.
“Mittleman and I have pretty good chemistry,” said Miller. “We were together last year. I knew she was going to roll on that and I trust that she’s always going to be there. Luckily she got it in.”
Demarest also sank 5 free throws in a row to close out the victory.
“It all comes out of our team chemistry,” Tirado said. “We all hang out a lot. Our coach makes sure we are all connected. We’re always talking when we’re doing ‘shoot around’ in practice.”
Old Tappan fell to 8-3, while Demarest ran its record to 9-3 and is much improved over last season.
“Last year we had a lovely group of young ladies, but we had two kids transfer out and it was devastating,” said Jurjevic. “I didn’t have an answer. You can only develop kids so much in this league. This is big dog basketball. If you’re not athletic and you’re not fast it doesn’t matter how many fundamentals we do in practice. I didn’t have the caliber of athletes to hang.
“This year we are enjoying every moment. I don’t know if a team will go through what we went through last year but we’re not going to take any of these games for granted. Even if we had lost this game it would not have been a big deal. Even if we lose the next one it’s not going to be a big deal because we have a lot of basketball left and we’re going to continue to grow and get better.”
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