Senior Angie Tirado scored 21 of 6th-seeded Demarest's 40 points in an upset of No. 3 IHA in the quarterfinals of the Bergen County Tournament.
DEMAREST - Senior Angie Tirado burst out of the halftime locker room with a layup off a pass from sophomore Deana Finkelstein and a 3-pointer sandwiched around a drive to the basket by junior Gabriella Mittleman as No. 6 seeded Demarest upset No. 3 Immaculate Heart Academy, 40-34 in the quarterfinals of the Bergen County Women's Coaches Association County Tournament Saturday afternoon.
Demarest is heading to the county semifinals for the first time since 1992
“In the locker room we knew we had to get hyped for the second half,” said Tirado, who led all scorers with 21 points. “It was like a switch turned on. We were all locked in. We knew what the goal was.”
“I think we were probably overly prepared,” added Demarest coach Jenny Jurjevic. “But that’s because the girls wanted it that way. Whatever data or intel I gave them, they actually wanted more. Whatever little scout I gave them they wanted more. I think this came down to them really wanting this. We haven’t lost a game on our home court yet and we take a little pride in that. I feel like we moved the ball pretty well - it was a team effort.”
The 7-0 run broke a 28-28 tie in a game where the score was tied four other times, prompting IHA to call a timeout with 5:42 left in the game.
After grabbing the lead for good Demarest turned up the heat on defense.
“This is the first time in my 14 years that I stress defense,” Jurjevic said. “I fell in love with offense when I started coaching, so now we spend a lot of time doing shell, fronting the post, meet and greet, get in front - all those dumb little gimmicks that I hope stick in these kids’ heads. We’ve been scrimmaging boys this last week. We’ve been grinding with boys that outweigh us 50-60 pounds because we knew they were going to be physical today. That was the plan.”
Sophomore Nassiah Cole-Haricha led IHA with 7 points.
“In practice we’ve been playing against boys,” Tirado added. “We just wanted to play IHA as close as possible - make it completely uncomfortable for them. Their shooters can post up so we tried to make it as uncomfortable as possible for them.”
The Blue Eagles finally scored on a floater by sophomore Lucie Schell with 2:59 left in the game. Demarest countered by spreading the floor, keeping the ball away from IHA as the clock ran down.
“We only want quality shots and it’s hard to teach kids that these days, but they bought in,” Jurjevic said. “Nothing was forced, nothing was 1-on-3 so we brought it out.”
IHA began fouling the Demarest players and Tirado and Mittleman each canned a free throw around a basket from in close by Eagles junior Samantha Grella. Sophomore Nassiah Cole-Haricha added a bucket for IHA to trim the lead to 37-34 with 23.1 to go.
Mittleman added a free throw, but when she missed the second Tirado got the rebound and was fouled. She drained both free throws with 12.3 to go and closed out the scoring, 40-34.
“We get more intense for sure,” Tirado said of the final minute of the game.” It’s like, ‘I can’t wait for the game to be over, we’re going to do it, we got this.’ We didn’t expect to go as good as we were. Last year we were great but we didn't expect to come out the way we did. It’s been amazing. This experience, going into the Final Four is great.”
“There have been a few games like this for her but to me this was a perfect game for Angie Tirado,” Jurjevic said. “She was smart, she took initiative when we needed her to take initiative, she hit big time shots down the stretch. She played post defense and she’s my height, 5’7, and she’s fronting #15 (Cole-Haricha) and I can’t wait to see how many rebounds she got. She’s learned to trust her teammates and she let the game happen today but she made sure it didn’t get out of control.”
Freshman Caitlyn Fontana chipped in with 5 points off the bench for Demarest, which will play Teaneck in the semifinals.
The two teams battled throughout the entire game. IHA took a 4-point lead, 10-6, late in the first quarter when senior Sofia Valente swished a 3-pointer. But Tirado cut the lead to 10-8 with 5 seconds left in the first quarter with a bucket from in close.
Demarest held a 5-point lead in the third quarter but Valente hit a trey and Eagles freshman Casey McCauley drove and scored to tie the game 28-all.
A freshman for Demarest, Caitlyn Fontana, also had an impact in the game as she buried a 3-pointer to give Demarest a 13-12 lead in the second quarter and hit a side jumper off an IHA deflection to tie the game 23-all in the third quarter. As it turns out each of her parents were prolific scorers in high school back in the day.
“She definitely bought in.” Jurjevic said. “She’s come a long way. She’s another kid that is a multi-sport athlete so I don’t get a lot of time with her. She came right off the soccer pitch right into basketball. Her mom played for Jeff Jasper. She was a senior when I was a sophomore and when Caitlyn takes a jump shot or gets a rebound I have visions of when her mom was in high school. A 1,000-point scorer. I see the same pull up jump shot, the same hop. Her dad played for Cliffside Park and he was a 1,000-point scorer. You have two DNAs meeting and that’s the product. She stepped up today - that’s for sure.”
IHA lost in the quarterfinals for the second straight year while Demarest moves on to play No. 2 seeded Teaneck next weekend in the semifinals at Fair Lawn High School.
““They did a pretty good job of taking our transition away,” Jurjevic said of the Eagles. “We had zero fast breaks. They made it extremely difficult for Mittleman to get into the paint. Deana Finkelstein did her job. She guarded [IHA senior Sofia] Valente today. She wanted to be prepared but she was more prepared. She wanted it - it was so selfless. She wasn’t impatient on offense, she knows it’s February and maybe we need a little more room to get shots off. She put all her energy and effort on the defensive end.”
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