Secaucus regains control in third

Andrea Innis Secaucus

Andrea Innis scored 10 third-quarter points for Secaucus against Becton.

Click Here for photos from Becton at Secaucus.

By Jason Bernstein
Editorial Director

SECAUCUS – The Patriots may have had a 10-point lead heading into the half against Becton, but it was hardly the performance that head coach John Sterling has come to expect from his team.

After an extended halftime conversation, Sterling’s message was received loud and clear. Secaucus scored 19 of the next 21 points en route to a convincing 54-39 victory yesterday.

“I generally don’t have a lot to say (during halftime), but I wasn’t really thrilled with our execution or effort in the first half,” Sterling said. “I thought we made a lot of mental mistakes in terms of silly reach-in fouls, careless mistakes, not getting after some loose balls and rebounds. We have a smart team.”

“He told us to try to control the game more,” guard Andrea Innis said. “Play at our own tempo and stop fouling.”

That control of the tempo was apparent from the start of the third when Alyssa Lyngholm recorded a steal and lay-up on the first possession of the half. What had been a 10-point lead at the start of the quarter, quickly grew to 17 within 75 seconds after consecutive baskets from Innis.

“It was more of a fast-paced game after halftime and that’s usually what we want to go for,” forward Shannon Waters said.

The Patriots (15-2) would close the period with a flurry, scoring 12 unanswered points in the final 4:34. Innis and Waters were once again at the forefront, scoring five points apiece in the span. Innis, who had 10 points in the third, capped off the surge with a long pass to Waters for an easy two points, putting the game well out of hand at 51-24.

“I thought we played a very good third quarter,” Sterling said. “We kind of controlled things (in the third). We played a lot better in the third quarter than we did in the first half.”

The third quarter represented a stark contrast from the opening for a Secaucus squad which uncharacteristically struggled to hit shots offensively. The Patriots found themselves trailing on four separate occasions in the opening quarter.

Secaucus took the lead for good on a Lyngholm 3-pointer with 1:15 left in the first, jump-starting a 12-2 run. But more challenges were ahead as foul trouble to Innis and Ariana Simon tested the Patriots’ depth midway through the second quarter, allowing Becton (9-11) to cut the deficit down to seven.

“It’s not always just that one team is playing poorly, the other team does some really good things to make you look bad,” Sterling said. “(Becton) set some good screens, they had good movement and they hit a lot of open shots in the first half.”

Secaucus was able to take a 32-22 lead into the half thanks to a scalding-hot Waters. The junior scored the Patriots’ first eight points of the contest and had 18 of her game-high 23 points in the opening half of play.

Innis added 16 points, eight rebounds, seven steals and five assists in the victory.

Keri Ryan and Melanie Anderson led the Wildcats with 12 and 10 points respectively and Zaneta Balbuza pulled down 14 rebounds.

Secaucus plays at Wallington on Friday night in its last game before the Hudson County Tournament. The Patriots, seeded second, will host Hoboken in the first round on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Alyssa Lyngholm Secaucus

Alyssa Lyngholm had four points in the third quarter and finished with seven in the win.

	1	2	3	4	Total
Becton Wildcats (9-11)	9	13	2	15	39
Secaucus Patriots (15-2)	14	18	19	3	54

Becton

Secaucus

	2s	3s	1s	Pts
Keir Ryan	2	2	2	12
Rhiannon Liuardo	0	0	1	1
Melanie Anderson	3	1	1	10
Allison Zierold	1	1	1	6
Zaneta Balbuza	0	0	1	1
Crystal Buie	1	1	0	5
Katherine Castellanos	0	0	0	0
Taylor James	0	0	0	0
Elizabeth Hollenbeck	0	0	0	0
Alyssa Coleman	2	0	0	4
Total	9	5	6	39

	2s	3s	1s	Pts
Shannon Waters	4	3	6	23
Andrea Innis	6	0	4	16
Danielle Roesing	0	1	0	3
Alyssa Lyngholm	2	1	0	7
Ariana Simon	0	0	0	0
Luaren Guillen	0	1	0	3
Kendyl Voli	0	0	0	0
Brittney Mitchell	1	0	0	2
Danielle Mitchell	0	0	0	0
Leah Kantor	0	0	0	0
Amina Shahid	0	0	0	0
Total	13	6	10	54

Becton: Balbuza 14 rebounds; Anderson 4 rebounds; Liuardo 4 rebounds. Secaucus: Innis 8 rebounds, 7 steals, 5 assists; Roesing 5 rebounds; Lyngholm 4 steals; Waters 4 rebounds.