Senior Celina Bussanich finished with 15 points for Pascack Valley, which stunned Old Tappan, 63-42, on Thursday.
HILLSDALE - Pascack Valley outscored Old Tappan 35-8 in the second and fourth quarters to come away with an impressive 63-42 victory over its league rival on Thursday afternoon.
“Old Tappan is incredibly talented, so balanced and so well-coached,” said PV coach Jeff Jasper. “I think we played really well and they played below their standard.”
“Old Tappan has beaten Demarest, who we lost to, and other teams like that,” said Panthers senior Ava Burke. “So this proves to us that if we play how we played today with the energy and the focus we can make it far this season.”
The Panthers jumped out to a 12-3 lead but Old Tappan fought back and trimmed the Valley advantage to 14-13 as the first quarter ended, thanks to a pair of threes by Knights sophomore Alivia Badurina and two baskets in close by freshman Alexa Caunedo.
“Before the game started we talked a lot about energy because we know Old Tappan always brings energy so it’s a competitive game,” said Burke. “When they would go on a 10-0 run and score a bunch of points really quickly we would call timeout or regroup and tell each other, ‘we got it’ and stay composed. If you lose composure in a game like that is when you get beat.”
As the second quarter began senior Celina Bussanich hit a jumper to boost the lead to three and the Panthers closed out the second quarter with a 12-0 run to take a 31-16 lead into intermission. After Panthers sophomore Raina Gibbs drained a three in the first 30 seconds of the third quarter Old Tappan erupted for a 12-6 run to chop the lead to 37-28. But a step-back trey by Burke and scoop shot by Bussanich restored order and upped the Valley advantage to 42-30.
“When the other team is going on a run I know it boosts our energy and makes us want to come back even more,” said Burke. “You hear their student section or their team cheering and getting energized. That makes us want it even more because we know we can come back from that.”
The teams traded baskets and, as the fourth quarter began, PV held an 8-point lead, 45-37.
Gibbs and Bussanich swished three-pointers in the first minute of play in the final frame to start an onslaught. Junior Mia Derrico scored for Old Tappan but freshman Keira O’Cathain, Gibbs, sophomore Danielle Regula and two drives to the basket by Bussanich gave Valley a 22-point lead, 61-39, midway through the fourth. Three minutes later Valley took out the starters and put in the subs.
Emma Costello (a sophomore), Gibbs, O’Cathain and Regula are four of the first six players of the Panthers lineup. Burke and Bussanich have played together for a long time and are the senior leaders bringing these underclassmen along.
“They’re not as experienced,” Bussanich said of the underclassmen, “but when we practice together moving the ball, setting screens for each other, they all get the flow of the game. It’s good we don’t have plays sometimes because we just move the ball on our own and get each other open.”
“I’ve been playing with Celina since we were in 5th grade,” added Burke. “We have a lot of chemistry together and she can give me a look and I know she wants a hand off or a screen. I know how she plays and she knows how I play. They (underclassmen) get the flow of the game when we practice and I feel at this point in the season they’re experienced enough so they’re starting to have the chemistry that a true good team has. That’s what this game showed us - that we can play with the highest level teams. We now have chemistry and we understand the way each other plays.”
Bussanich started off slowly with scoring as many of her shots were “in and out” early on, but she came on strong, scoring 9 points in the fourth quarter to finish with 15.
“It (missing shots) used to bother me but now I just forget about it and move on,” she said. “Some shots are going to go in and some are going to miss so you just have to go on to the next one. Just keep shooting - don’t let it bother you.”
“She attracts all the attention,” said Jasper. “Whoever is the best defender on the other team is who guards her. She never sees the light of day. Everything she gets is by pure determination and really working hard. Nobody is gifting her anything. She’s getting them because she earns them all.”
Burke and Gibbs led all scorers with 17 points apiece. O’Cathain contributed 9. Derrico led the Golden Knights with 11, while Caunedo added 10.
“She played really well,” Jasper said of Burke. “She’s diversified her game. She can shoot it, she goes to the basket and this was a great game for her. The kid who made the biggest difference was Ava Burke. The amount of points she had was the difference in the game.”
Pascack Valley improved to 9-5 while Old Tappan fell to 9-5.
“It’s always a competitive game against them,” Bussinach said. “Everyone is so energized. It’s our rival school and everyone is hyped to play against them especially when we beat them, when we know they’ve beaten teams that we lost to. It gives us that extra boost of confidence.”
“When we play against high level teams it excites the whole team,” added Burke. “Despite the fact that we’re off to a rocky start to our season we were right there with Demarest and right there with Teaneck and beating Old Tappan shows us how good we can be if we play to our full potential.”
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