Bees win third-straight title

Bayonne Bees

Kerrie Kosakowski (3) jumps into the arms of Lisa Rovatsos after the Bees' win.

Click Here for more photos from Bayonne vs North Bergen

By Jason Bernstein
Editorial Director

JERSEY CITY – If the Bees needed any motivation before their Hudson County Tournament championship game all they needed to do was think back 10 days.

Bayonne had suffered its lone league loss of the season that night in North Bergen and star Lisa Rovatsos endured a disastrous game while calls of “Where is Lisa?” rang from visiting crowd.

Everyone at the Yanitelli Center would know where Rovatsos was last night as she delivered a dominant 21-point, 12-rebound performance as the Bees earned a convincing 48-32 victory to capture their third straight title and avenge the earlier defeat.

“During the end of our game at North Bergen, the North Bergen fans were chanting ‘Where is Lisa?’” Bayonne head coach James Turner said. “She’s at half court with her teammates holding up a third-straight championship trophy.”

“They gave me the fire,” Rovatsos said. “The audience gave me the fire. I came out and shut them down.”

Held to just seven points in the regular season matchup on Feb. 16, Rovatsos needed just one quarter to match that mark last night as the Bruins had no answers for her athleticism or aggressiveness on the offensive end.

“I said Lisa if you just take your first step and bang into them, you’re getting to the basket,” Turner said. “If the girl (defending her) is on her heels, no one can jump off their heels, go right by them and that’s what she did.”

The junior’s hot streak continued into the second quarter as she added six more points. Rovatsos, notched her 1,000th career point late in the second off a pass from Luisa Montalvo. The milestone basket would snap a 19-all tie and give the top-seeded Bees (23-3) a lead they would never relinquish.

“Lisa has texted me in the last 48 hours at least nine times asking if I was ready,” guard Tara Flynn said. “I had no doubt Lisa was ready for this game that she was going to come out and get her 1,000th point. If Lisa goes, we all go. She’s got that heart, she brought it, and she had everything under control. All we had to do was get the ball inside and that’s it.”

“I had all next season to do it,” Rovatsos said about the milestone. “I was really thinking about the win more than the 1,000th point and I was able to get both.”

Rovatsos and Bayonne would take care of that in the third quarter, as they the second-seeded Bruins (22-4) with 13 unanswered points to start the second half. Five different Bees scored in the stretch, capped by Rovatsos’ basket with 3:21 left in the third to make it a 16-point lead.

Ashley Vazzona would snap the scoring skid on a 3-pointer with 2:46 left, but North Bergen would never get back on track offensively. Bayonne would limit the Bruins to just 11 points in the second half as they continually mixed up their defensive scheme by using a full-court press as well as a zone.

“We know the third quarter’s crucial, especially since North Bergen is a third quarter team,” Flynn said. “We knew we had to come out of the locker room coming out on fire. As soon as we stopped them on the first possession, we knew it was over. “

Flynn was at the forefront of the Bees defense as she held Vazzona, North Bergen’s leading scorer this season, to just six points.

Ashley Heredia led the Bruins with 10 points. The senior wing added six rebounds and gave North Bergen a 19-17 lead with her second quarter field goal. Jazmin Palma and Doris Ilic added eight and six points respectively.

Flynn had 11 points and four rebounds in addition to her work on the defensive end. Kerrie Kosaskowski and Alex Fajardo added six points apiece while Luis Montalvo had four points and five assists.

Both teams will now move onto the state tournament tomorrow with high seeds. Bayonne is the No. 2 seed in North 2, Group IV and will host Hunterdon Central at 5:30 p.m. North Bergen is the top seed in North 1, Group IV and will be home to face Fair Lawn at 7 p.m.

Nicole Paulino, Lisa Rovatsos

North Bergen's Nicole Paulino (right) shoots over Lisa Rovatsos in the third quarter.

	1	2	3	4	Total
North Bergen Bruins (22-4)	10	11	6	5	32
Bayonne Bees (23-3)	9	15	17	7	48

North Bergen

Bayonne

	2s	3s	1s	Pts
Ashley Vazzona	0	2	0	6
Amanda Rivera	0	0	0	0
Ashley Heredia	5	0	0	10
Jazmin Palma	1	2	0	8
Doris Ilic	1	1	1	6
Kayla Muniz	1	0	0	2
Raynneliz Carrillo	0	0	0	0
Nicole Paulino	0	0	0	0
Total:	8	5	1	32

	2s	3s	1s	Pts
Lisa Rovatsos	8	0	5	21
Alex Fajardo	2	0	2	6
Kerrie Kosakowski	3	0	0	6
Luisa Montalvo	2	0	0	4
Tara Flynn	2	2	1	11
Desiree Vasquez	0	0	0	0
Shaudaria Fiedtkon	0	0	0	0
Amanda Novielli	0	0	0	0
Aviah Williams	0	0	0	0
Jesenia Montalvo	0	0	0	0
Total:	17	2	8	48

Bayonne: Rovatsos 12 rebounds; Fajardo 6 rebounds; Montalvo 5 assists, 4 rebounds; Flynn 4 rebounds; Kosakowski 4 rebounds. North Bergen: Heredia 6 rebounds; Ilic 6 rebounds.