February 21, 2011
Montalvo sparks Bayonne
Senior Luisa Montalvo had 15 points and eight rebounds for top-seeded Bayonne.
Click Here for more photos from Bayonne vs Holy Family
By Jason Bernstein
Editorial Director
JERSEY CITY – With four scorers capable of putting up double-digits on any given night, offense hadn’t been much of an issue for Bayonne. But recently, the Bees had experienced a scoring drought unfamiliar to the defending Hudson County champions. After scoring just 30 points in its previous game (a loss to North Bergen), Bayonne was plagued by similar issues early in its semifinal contest with Holy Family.
Midway through the first half though, Luisa Montalvo found the remedy to the scoring ills – attacking the rim. The senior guard took over with eight points in a span of less than three minutes to propel the Bees to a 54-39 victory yesterday at the Yanitelli Center.
“I tried to go into the lane with it a little bit more because they were trying to stop us and take outside shots,” said Montalvo. “We’re ok at doing this, but we wanted to go inside.
“After a while, we knew we had to keep moving the ball. I just felt we had to keep moving the ball.”
A four-minute scoring drought left top-seeded Bayonne (22-3) down 16-12 midway through the second quarter. Lisa Rovatsos broke the spell with a put-back to cut it down to two.
Montalvo took from there as converted on four field goals as part of a 12-0 Bees run. She took her own rebound down the court for an easy basket to tie the game at 16-all. Montalvo would follow it with another field goal which gave Bayonne a lead they would never relinquish.
She would cap off the three-minute surge with a long two from the corner and another transition basket off her own rebound.
For Montalvo, her hot streak was set up by an old-fashioned 3-point play she had in the final seconds of the opening quarter.
“After I did that and hit the foul shot, I knew I had to keep going in,” Montalvo said.
She would have 15 points on the afternoon (10 in the opening half), many of them coming in the transition game.
“You forget about her,” Holy Family head coach Pat Longo said. “You’re worried about Lisa, Kerrie (Kosakowski) and Tara (Flynn) and then she knocks in those shots. It’s tough to defend her.”
Montalvo also had eight rebounds and five steals in the victory.
Her teammates seemed to rediscover their offensive touch in the second half with 16 points in the third to keep the fourth-seeded Falcons (14-7) from getting back within striking distance.
Rovatsos, a junior, had 12 of her game-high 16 points in the second half, while Flynn and Kosakowski each nailed 3-pointers in the third.
“I just felt like in the North Bergen game we had an off vibe,” Montalvo said. “In this game I think we worked as a team more. I felt like we had the vibe back.”
Flynn (12 points) and Kosakowski (11 points, nine rebounds) gave Bayonne four players in double-figures as they never allowed the lead to dip to less than five in the second half.
“I thought we played well in the first half, but in the second half we couldn’t get anything going,” Longo said. “I think we gave them a run for their money in the first half. We just couldn’t get over the hump in the second half.”
Dominique Gallo had a season-high 13 points and a game-best 15 rebounds for Holy Family. Diane Forker just missed out on a double-double as she finished with 14 points and nine rebounds.
With the win Bayonne will get a shot at revenge against the Bruins in Saturday’s title game at 7 p.m. Despite the semifinals win the Bees know more work needs to be done, particularly on the defensive end to get back to the level they were at during a recent 17-game winning streak.
“If we want to get to the level where we want to go, we’re not going to get there playing defense like this,” head coach James Turner said. “We got a lot of work to do the next couple of days to prepare for Saturday’s game and the states.”
“North Bergen’s a really good team,” Montalvo said. “They’re just like us in that they have four really good players. They’re just like us, they can do the same damage, and we just have to keep working hard.”
Dominique Gallo scored a season-high 13 points and added 15 rebounds.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Holy Family Academy Falcons (14-7) | 10 |
8 |
12 |
9 |
39 |
| Bayonne Bees (22-2) | 12 |
12 |
16 |
14 |
54 |
| Holy Family | Bayonne | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bayonne: Kosakowski 9 rebounds, 4 assists; Montalvo 8 rebounds, 5 steals; Rovatsos 7 rebounds; Flynn 5 assists, 4 rebounds, 4 steals. Holy Family: Gallo 15 rebounds; Forker 9 rebounds; Micewicz 5 rebounds; Murphy 4 assists; Silva 4 rebounds. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||