March 4, 2010
Patriots hold on against High Tech
Freshman Ariana Simon scored nine of her 15 points in the first quarter for Secaucus.
Click Here for photos from High Tech at Secaucus.
By Jason Bernstein
Editorial Director
SECAUCUS – Throughout the season, Secaucus has made a habit of putting games away early on. Despite some stressful moments late in the game, the Patriots once again took a quick lead and made it stick, defeating High Tech 50-43 in the second round of the NJSIAA North 2, Group I tournament last night.
“This one wasn’t as nerve-wracking as the last one,” said head coach John Sterling, referring to his team’s opening round game on Monday. “We made it a little more difficult than we had to. Give (High Tech) a lot of credit, they really played hard the whole way through.”
“I get scared sometimes,” forward Ariana Simon said. “But our coach tries to teach us that we have to be mentally tough and believe we can win whether we’re down by one or 20.”
It marked the second-straight game in which Secaucus (21-4) was on the wrong end of a fourth-quarter surge. Yet unlike the opening round matchup (a 49-48 victory over Bloomfield Tech), the second-seeded Patriots never lost the lead. Despite giving up a late 12-1 charge from High Tech (17-11), the anxiety level wasn’t quite at the elevated levels of Monday night.
“The last game it looked like we were really going to give it away and lose,” Sterling said. “Here I never really thought we were going to lose.”
Secaucus seemed poised to put the game out of reach early with 24 points in the first quarter. But unlike many of the Patriots’ scoring binges throughout the year it wasn’t Andrea Innis and Shannon Waters doing the heavy lifting on offense. Instead it was freshmen Simon and Danielle Roesing who combined for 16 points in the opening period.
Simon capped off a 14-0 Secaucus run with nine straight points in a span of just 84 seconds.
“She’s definitely stepping up especially for a freshman,” Innis said. “(It’s huge) having someone we can rely on to score and play in the post because we don’t really have a big team.”
Simon was a terror in the paint, particularly on the offensive glass. She finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds before fouling out early in the fourth quarter.
“She’s had a couple of very good games, but this was probably her best,” Sterling said. “It hurt losing her because she was really tough out there. She got a lot of rebounds, a couple of nice steals and finished around the basket. It was a really nice game.”
Roesing added seven points in that opening quarter and finished with nine points and eight rebounds.
Innis had a double-double for Secaucus, finishing with 11 points and 15 rebounds, while Waters added seven points and seven rebounds.
After being plagued by foul trouble and turnovers for most of the game, High Tech’s offense came alive late in the third quarter. With standout Sybil Lynch on the bench with four fouls, junior point guard Kristina Rivera went on a personal 9-0 run late in the third to cut the deficit down to 10.
Lynch returned early in the fourth and responded with eight-straight points during the game ending 11-1 run. She cut the deficit for the seventh-seeded Lasercats down to eight with a four-point play with 1:20 left in the quarter.
“I think they shook off the nerves and got back to playing basketball,” Fargo said. “We made it competitive. We made it where we wanted to be in the third and fourth quarter.”
Despite missing large portions of the game with foul trouble, Lynch hit four 3-pointers to finish with a game-high of 16 points. Rivera had 15 points (12 in the second half) and six rebounds
With Lynch, Rivera and Brianza Guzman (12 rebounds) all returning next year along with forward Jovanique Meneses, who missed the entire season with a knee injury, Fargo believes the future is looking up for High Tech.
“We’re very young,” Fargo said. “There was 10 minutes in the game where we had four sophomores and a junior on the floor. That says a lot about our future. I like our future here. We’re going to have a nice program in the next few years and I’m really looking forward to next year.”
With the win Secaucus will host third-seeded New Providence on Friday night in the semifinals.
Sybil Lynch had eight of her game-high 16 points in the fourth quarter for High Tech
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Tech Lasercats (17-11) | 10 |
10 |
7 |
16 |
43 |
| Secaucus Patriots (21-4) | 24 |
6 |
7 |
13 |
50 |
| High Tech | Secaucus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| High Tech: Guzman 12 rebounds; Rivera 6 rebounds; Northgrave 4 rebounds; Silberman 4 rebounds. Secaucus: Innis 15 rebounds; Simon 10 rebounds; Roesing 8 rebounds; Waters 7 rebounds, 4 assists. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||