March 1, 2010
Bees repeat behind Flynn's 15
Bayonne repeated as champions after defeating Lincoln 39-33 last night.
Click Here for photos from Bayonne vs Lincoln.
By Jason Bernstein
Editorial Director
JERSEY CITY – The front of the jersey might have said Bees, but for the Bayonne girls basketball team, it might as well have been a bulls-eye.
Possessing that target since the opening tip of the season, the Bees showed that they are the best team that Hudson County has to offer after defeating Lincoln 39-33 last night in the final of the Hudson County Tournament at the Yanitelli Center.
“I’m proud of these girls,” head coach James Turner said. “They worked hard. As a coach I have 18 daughters. It’s that glaring moment when you’re daughter graduates high school or college and does something successful. This is awesome for the girls.”
In addition to being the county’s best for the second straight season (they won the HCIAA Coviello title in 2009), Bayonne (20-5) showed that they are the deepest squad as well. Unlike most of their wins this season, it wasn’t the inside-out combo of Connie Hayes and Lisa Rovatsos doing the heavy lift on offense. Instead it Tara Flynn who led the way with 15 points and six rebounds to take home MVP honors.
“(Tara) was licking her chops for this game because she felt she didn’t play particularly well offensively against St. Anthony,” Turner said. “She was like sitting in the dark waiting for this game. This girl’s a competitor and it showed tonight. It shows about her tenacity and her never-say-die attitude.”
“I definitely felt like I had a more well-balanced game,” said Flynn. Offensively I played within myself. I just let my juices flow naturally and I just played basketball.”
Looking to put Tuesday’s three-point performance against the Friars behind her, Flynn came out firing. Taking full advantage of the defensive attention that was focused towards Hayes (seven points), Rovatsos (two points, nine rebounds) and Samantha Maggio (eight points), Flynn hit a trio of 3-pointer in the opening half..
“If they’re going to leave me open, I might as well just pull the trigger,” Flynn said.
“Tara was the one who surprised us,” Lincoln head coach Tom Best said. “We saw her a couple times and we thought Connie and Lisa and Maggio were the mainstays of the team (on offense). I think she hit three 3-pointers that kind of broke our back. If someone’s going to hurt us it wasn’t going to be the main three.”
Luisa Montalvo also took advantage of the Lions’ defense early on, coming off the bench with five points in the first half.
Flynn’s first trey jump-started a 10-0 run as the Bees raced out to a 14-1 lead, putting Lincoln on the brink of disaster early.
Trailing by as much as 13 points and by 10 after the third, the young Lions started to make their run. Lincoln scored the first six points of the fourth quarter and drew to within four points after a pair of Indigo Hatcher free throws with 4:35 left.
“I told them you came too far to not give it your all,” Best said. Leave it all out on the court because there’s no redo’s. You can’t play them again. I think the moment caught up with some of them, but then they realized they just needed to play.”
Flynn would put a halt to the Lions’ comeback attempt, connecting on four free throws to close out the victory.
“I felt they had the momentum and it was key to kill the momentum and just finish the game,” Flynn said. “Smash-mouth basketball like Coach always says.”
Zierra Williams took home MVP honors for Lincoln, finishing with nine points and eight rebounds. Sharmane Rhodes added eight points as the Lions will have little time to dwell on this lost with their North 2, Group II playoff opener tomorrow night at Parisppany.
“We’re young. I’m hoping we bounce back,” Best said. “The more we play, the better we’re going to get. We’re going to have pretty much our whole team except for Sharmane back. We’ll learn from this. You learn from your losses and in big games you learn something”
The turnaround for Bayonne will be fast as well. They will host Watchung Hills tomorrow night in the opening round of the North 2, Group IV tournament.
Bayonne's Connie Hayes (left) looks to drive past Lincoln's Nhire Adams in the first.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lincoln Lions (16-8) | 5 |
10 |
8 |
10 |
33 |
| Bayonne Bees (20-5) | 17 |
10 |
6 |
6 |
39 |
| Lincoln | Bayonne | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Bayonne: Rovatsos 9 rebounds; Flynn 6 rebounds; Maggio 4 assists. Lincoln: Crute 8 rebounds; Williams 8 rebounds; Rhodes 5 rebounds. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||