January 17, 2012

Union City falls to Dumont

Dumont's Angela Gallo (left) shoots over Union City's Eboni Wood for a basket. (Photo: Jason Bernstein)

Dumont at Union City Girls Basketball Photo Gallery

By Jason Bernstein Editorial Director

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UNION CITY – With just three healthy players with varsity experience entering the season, Charlie Roussel knew getting his Union City team up to speed wouldn't be an easy task at times.

Yesterday was one of those painful examples of the Soaring Eagles' lack of experience coming back to haunt them in a 56-36 loss to Dumont in the Martin Luther King Jr. Roundball Roundup.

"Hopefully it was an eye-opener," said Roussel about Dumont's superior defense and passing performance. "With hard work and dedication in the offseason that we could be comparable to them without a question or doubt. I think we're just as athletic as those girls, they're just more fundamentally sound and understand the game of basketball from playing more games as kids. That was evident in the little things."

Union City (4-7) struggled most of the morning with how to handle the quick passing attack of the visiting Huskies (8-4) with the end result often being an open jumper for one of Dumont's many shooters or an easy transition basket.

"We don't like to dribble," Dumont head coach Dave Cieplicki said. "We don't dribble well and we like to get rid of it right away. We like to look diagonal and that's one of the things we're pretty comfortable doing."

Dumont's more experienced lineup became too much for the Soaring Eagles when starting forward Shaela Rodriguez picked up her second foul with 2:32 left in the opening period on a three-point play from Shannon Oliver.

Oliver's free throw gave Dumont the lead for good at 9-8 and with Union City's leading scorer on the bench, the Huskies forced four turnovers and scored 11 of the next 13 points to put the game out of reach.

"If Shaela doesn't start off strong for us that limits (Jocelyn) Morales' looks knowing that she's the perimeter," Roussel said. "They can hedge out on the perimeter to take away the perimeter when the inside game isn't working."

"(Stopping Rodriguez) was the focus," Cieplicki said. "We were going to make everyone else try to score because I know she was averaging around 14 points per game. I figured if we could take care of her we'd be able to force other kids into doing things they weren't very comfortable doing."

Oliver had five points and two steals during the run as she finished with 10 points, nine rebounds, five assists and four steals.

Victoria Smith led all scorers with 20 points and Carly Reitano just missed out on a double-double, finishing with 10 points and nine rebounds.

Rodriguez, despite scoring just three points in the opening half, bounced back to finish with 10 points, 11 rebounds and four steals; all team highs for Union City. Jessica Diaz and Jocelyn Morales added seven and six points respectively. Junior Eboni Wood, a transfer from Marist, had nine rebounds in her season debut.

Despite the rough start, the addition of Wood and the development of underclassmen such as sophomore Karina Garcia (four points, seven rebounds) and freshman point guard Jessebelle Lavandier offer Roussel and the Soaring Eagles optimism as they enter the second half of the season.

"They're learning," Roussel said. "We do the bulk of our practices on fundamentals and trying to get better basketball wise. We looked a little better today. We'll get better, it's early."

Union City's Shaela Rodriguez had a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. (Photo: Jason Bernstein)

Dumont at Union City Girls Basketball Photo Gallery

 

	1	2	3	4	Total
Dumont Huskies (8-4)	20	14	16	6	56
Union City Soaring Eagles (4-7)	10	9	6	11	36

Dumont		Union City
2s 3s 1s Pts Victoria Smith 8 1 1 20 Shannon Oliver 4 0 2 10 Nicollette Poveromo 1 2 0 8 Carly Reitano 2 2 0 10 Reda Nicholson 1 0 0 2 Amanda Fisco 0 0 0 0 Angela Gallo 1 0 0 2 Alyssa Remella 0 0 0 0 Gina Yannette 2 0 0 4 Tina Grady 0 0 0 0 Total: 19 5 3 56		2s 3s 1s Pts Jessica Diaz 2 1 0 7 Jocelyn Morales 0 2 0 6 Shaela Rodriguez 4 0 2 10 Samantha Uribe 0 0 0 0 Karina Garcia 2 0 0 4 Kyana Willougby 1 0 0 2 Adriana Liverman 0 0 1 1 Claudia Gomez 2 0 0 4 Jessebelle Lavandier 0 0 0 0 Eboni Wood 0 0 2 2 Total: 11 3 5 36
Dumont: Oliver 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals; Reitano 9 rebounds; Yannette 7 rebounds, 5 assists. Union City: Rodriguez 11 rebounds, 4 steals; Wood 9 rebounds; Garcia 7 rebounds; Gomez 4 rebounds.