Celeste Harper scored a game-high 26 points for Holy Angels, which advanced to the Non-Public North A semifinals with a 58-51 win over Mt. St. Dominic Academy.
DEMAREST -- Holy Angels buried four 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to break open a close game en route to a 58-51 victory over Mount Saint Dominic in the quarterfinals of the North Jersey Non Public A state tournament on Monday night.
“The game was tight all the way,” said Angels coach Sue Liddy. “We knew it was going to be. This team is a tough, physical team. We thought we could beat them and it was going to take a lot of determination on our part - a grind it out type thing.”
The Angels got a shot of momentum with 30 seconds to go in the third quarter when senior Celeste Harper forced a turnover with a timely defensive play. A Lions player was ahead of the field going for a layup when Harper ran her down from behind, stripped the ball from her and watched the ball hit her leg and go out of bounds.
“I had quite a few fouls,” Harper said, “and I knew if I went up to try to block it I would have been called for a foul. So I tried to reach under her and when I did it bounced off her leg.”
It turned into a 4-point play when junior inside phenom Daria Coll drove and scored to give the Angels a 33-30 lead, but Lions senior Gianna Stern hit a 3-pointer to tie the game heading into the fourth quarter.
Angels junior Amanda Garcia got things going in the first minute of the fourth quarter with a trey to break a 33-33 tie. Not to be outdone, however, Lions junior Lorelei Middleton drained her fourth 3-pointer of the game to tie the game 36-all, but Angels senior Samantha Serrano drove and scored to give the Angels the lead for good, 38-36.
Thirty seconds later Garcia swished another three and after Lions freshman Ava Kelshaw tallied a three-point play Angels junior Lara Kraus clanged home a 3-pointer of her own to up the lead to five, 44-39.
“The score was very close and the team needed something to start it up again,” said Kraus. “I got a good pass and after I hit that three it helped the team get back up and motivated us. It was very intense and after the shot everyone started getting excited. It was just a team effort.”
“I think we were a little down for a little bit,” said sophomore Emily Vonderhorst. “We were having a hard time and were in foul trouble early on. We had a couple of subs come in and hit threes. We hit two threes in a row (Garcia and Kraus) and it was a big game changer. It lit us up and motivated us to keep pushing.”
Coll drove and scored and Serrano drained another 3-pointer and Holy Angels led by 10, 49-39.
The teams traded baskets the rest of the way and the Angels converted 5-of-10 free throws to hold off the Lions and move on in the tournament.
“We locked in defensively,” said Harper. “We were playing good defense but we were getting scored on. On offense we got easier shots. We passed the ball around more and basically we did what we were supposed to do.”
“The kids said, ‘we’re pressing,’” said Liddy. “I didn’t tell them but they said, ‘we’re staying up.’ It turned the tables because I think it took a lot of the wind out of their (Lions) sails. They couldn’t just bring the ball up by themselves. It was a lot of pressure and they had to look for people who were open [to receive a pass]. I think they got a little tired.”
Early on the Angels struggled with their offense. The things they have done offensively this season suddenly were hard to come by, most notably free throws and layups.
“We were off for 10 days,” said Vonderhorst, “and we came off of some non-playoff games so it was difficult to pick up the intensity after such a long break. But I think we did pretty well. You have some adrenaline in the beginning and you kind of get all over the place but we slowed down and were able to recuperate and play very well. We got together and we knew what we had to do and we went out there and put all our effort in and came out with the win.”
“We weren’t used to it (the layoff),” added Kraus. “We had to get back in and it took us half of the game to get back to playing a game like this.”
Stern and junior Maddie Natale led the Lions with 13 points apiece. Junior Lorelei Middleton had 12 and Kelshaw chipped in with 10.
Serrano (game-high 26 points) and Harper (12) led the way as the Angels improved to 17-6. Coll added 7 points and a bunch of rebounds. Harper said it’s been fun playing with Serrano.
“It makes the game a lot easier,” she said. “One person goes off and the other one can calm down. If one person is having a bad day the other one can pick it up. It makes it a lot less stressful in the game.”
The Angels move on to play arch-rival IHA Thursday night.
“Some of their kids were hitting shots that they don’t normally hit,” said Liddy. He’s (Lions coach Ted Sochaski) got all those kids coming back except for No. 10 (Gianna Stern). But we grinded it out and we probably would have been up by 20 but for the layups and free throws we missed. It was a long layoff. This is good for us to get back to the physicality. IHA is physical with finesse.”
“We have a big game coming up against IHA - a pretty big rival - so that will be exciting,” added Vonderhorst. “We’ve had some pretty close games with them. As a team we always like coming off of a more intense game. It gets us working and keeps us moving before a big game like IHA.”
TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS STORY PLEASE VISIT 4-FeetGrafix.com.
