Breanna Slattery scored a game-high 20 points for New Providence, which is heading to the Joe Poli Tournament final after a 51-34 win over River Dell.
HILLSDALE – When a basketball team rolls up to a competitive game with only seven players in uniform it could be seen as a program in distress, one on its last legs and in search of a co-op partner. Then there is reigning Group 2 state champion New Providence, which is making its first-ever appearance in the Joe Poli Holiday Tournament with seven players in uniform and the swagger associated with one of the state’s top public school teams.
It was not by design, but the Pioneers have gotten comfortable with their tight rotation.
“Unfortunately we are that tight because of injury, so we have had to adapt and make it work,” said New Providence head coach Cap Pazdera. “The girls that are playing have a ton of experience and they have been in this spot before. They have played together for a long time so they know what they need to do in order to conserve energy and make it through 32 minutes.”
It’s not like New Providence walks the ball up the floor or tries to shorten the game by limiting possessions. With no weak link in a starting five that eats up just about all of the available minutes, the Pioneers push the ball when able, move it quickly in halfcourt sets, find cutters and pass up good shots for better ones.
River Dell was not even playing all that poorly through the first 16 minutes of the Poli semifinals on Thursday, but looked up at the halftime scoreboard to see a 19-point deficit in an eventual 51-34 New Prov win that puts it into Saturday’s championship game against Mahwah, which down host Pascack Valley, 51-42, in the first semifinal in Hillsdale.
“They did a good job of making us make some silly passes. I thought, fundamentally, we didn’t play well in the first half against their zone,” said Pazdera. “But once we started sharing the ball and getting it to the middle in the paint where the weakness was, we were able to expand on the lead.”
Junior Morgan Sconza finished with 13 points for River Dell, which will play Pascack Valley in the 3rd place game.
While New Providence is long on experience and poised to make another run at a state title, River Dell is at the other end of the public school wave as it lost 13 seniors from last year’s team that made strong state and county tournament runs. The Golden Hawks alternated wins and losses through their first six games of the season but are showing sure signs of improvement.
Freshman Dalia Interiano hit a 3-pointer and junior point guard Morgan Sconza followed with a drive way to the basket for a layup that gave River Dell a 5-4 lead 2:33 into the game. The Hawks had other prolonged stretches of quality offense, but sometimes is not enough against a team of the caliber of New Providence, which so often turns a couple of empty trips by the opposition into game-changing runs. The Pioneers scored the next seven points, the last three on a Jasmine Miller’s 3-pointer to go back in front for good.
New Providence can make it look effortless on the offensive end with its understanding of angles and its use of the bounce pass in tight spaces. Most of the Pioneers baskets come off assists and senior point guard Grace Kinum is responsible for a lot of that smoothness.
“It’s exciting to play teams that we haven’t really played before. It’s new competition and we get to run our stuff against players who might not have seen anything like our style before,” said Kinum, who scored the 1,000th point of her career last weekend. “Defensively we were just focused on knowing where your girl is and not giving up easy shots; making them earn every point.”
Breanna Slattery scored 5 points in a 7-0 run that closed the first quarter and put New Providence up by double digits for the first time at 18-7 and it scored the first five points of the second period to give itself some breathing room. The Pioneers held River Dell to just two second quarter field goals to grab a 30-11 lead at the intermission.
Sophomore Annie Conover scored 6 points for New Providence, which will play Mahwah in the championship game.
Slattery is a junior big, but she looks comfortable anywhere on the offensive end and has that understanding with Kinum, the point guard who passes her into open spaces.
“I think we are at our best when we slow down our offense and get good shots after multiple passes,” said Slattery, who finished with a game-high 20 points to go along with 6 rebounds and a block. “We don’t want to rush our offense.”
River Dell seemed to figure it out when it came out of the locker room with Kasey Ziegler heating up. After a scoreless first half, Ziegler, a junior wing, knocked down two 3s in the first 3:34 of the second half and she scored 9 of her 13 points in the third quarter to keep the Hawks on the fringes. They got as close 41-27 when Sconza nailed a 3 from the corner with 23 seconds left in the period, but Slattery converted a conventional 3-point play at the other end to push NP’s lead back to 17 points heading into the fourth quarter and the Pioneers cruised into the championship round.
Sconza and Ziegler tied for team high honors with 13 apiece for River Dell (3-4), while Alexa Depol and freshman Hope Arturi each made field goals. Interiano’s first quarter 3-pointer and Helena Marcus’ fourth quarter free through rounded out the scoring for the Hawks, who will play Holy Angels in the third place game on Saturday at Pascack Valley.
Slattery’s 20 points led all scorers while Kinum stuffed the scorebook with 13 points, 8 assists, 3 rebounds and 3 steals. She was also a perfect 3-for-3 from the free throw line where the Pioneers made 8 of 11 as a team. Senior Kyra Licari added 8 points, sophomore Annie Conover added 6, Miller made the Pioneers’ lone 3-pointer and Ava Kelly’s fourth quarter free throw represented the bench scoring for New Providence, which improved to 5-1 on the season with the lone loss coming in overtime against reigning Group 3 state champion Ewing.
Last season New Providence ended Manasquan’s run of eight straight Central Group 2 state sectional championships and went on to win the fourth state title in program history and its first in Group 2. Having also won two straight Union County championships there is no mountains left to climb. It’s all about seeing how long they can hang out on the summit of New Jersey public school hoops.
“We did it last year so we are just trying to prepare ourselves to get back in that position again this year,” said Pazdera. “Manasquan and Rumson[-Fair Haven] are both in our section so it is never like, ‘pencil it in, we are going to win it again.’ Those are going to be big games if we can get there, our county tournament is going to be tough and we have a good Mahwah team in the final here.”
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