http://unionnewsdaily.com/sports/cranford-girls-basketball-comes-back-to-edge-gl-37-36-in-season-opener-for-both-standout-senior-mccoy-nets-winning-hoop
Cranford girls’ basketball comes back to edge GL 37-36 in
season-opener for both; Standout senior McCoy nets winning hoop
Highlander senior George leads all scorers with stellar 20-point effort and also grabs 9 rebounds
By:
JR Parachini - Union County Sports Editor
PHOTO BY JR PARACHINI:
Cranford’s three returning senior starters are, from left, Jess McCoy, Jenna Goeller and Kaitlin McGovern.
PHOTO BY JR PARACHINI:
GL sixth-year head coach Andy Silvagni, middle, diagrams a play for his Highlanders.
BERKELEY HEIGHTS – Cranford standout senior Jess McCoy didn’t
make her first field goal until there was just 3:50 to go in the third
quarter. Her seventh shot from the floor gave the visiting Cougars their
fourth lead.
Cranford, as a team, missed its first nine shots of the fourth
quarter. However, after player-of-the-game Mallory George of host
Governor Livingston gave the Highlanders their third and final lead by
hitting a shot in the lane, McCoy was there again for the Cougars,
coming through in the clutch.
Despite not filling up the hoop as much as she normally does earlier
in the game, McCoy hit a jumper from the left side with just over a
minute left – which were the only points Cranford scored in the fourth
quarter, giving the Cougars their seventh lead and the advantage for
good – and then came up with a steal shortly afterwards.
Cranford then held on in the final minute, surviving an almost-steal
at halfcourt by GL sophomore Sara Dilly with less than 20 seconds left,
to post a thrilling, come-from-behind 37-36 Union County
Conference-Watchung Division triumph over the Highlanders.
Friday afternoon’s season-opening game between last year’s top two
teams in Union County took place at GL’s Red Gym. It was also the first
Watchung Division game for both teams, each moving up after GL won the
Mountain Division last year en route to a school-best 26-2 finish and
Cranford finished second.
McCoy, in not one of her strongest games, still managed to finish
with 13 points, eight rebounds and four steals. Although she did not
make a field goal in the first half, including missing a lefty layup
after a steal, she got Cranford through a tough division opponent by
producing as her team’s go-to player.
“We’re always a second half team,” said McCoy, who scored 10 of her 13 points in the second half.
“Jess really got into a rhythm in the second half,” Cranford sixth-year head coach Jackie Dyer said.
Cranford overcame a 14-8 deficit after the first quarter to get the
game to a score of 20-20 at intermission. The Cougars then outscored GL
15-11 in the third quarter, taking a lead by as much as six points at
32-26 when McCoy and junior Kerry Wischusen connected on back-to-back
3-pointers.
“We didn’t start out so well, but we stayed calm and kept our
composure,” said McCoy, who gave a verbal commitment to play at Division
3 Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where she will
study biology. “In the second half I was more relaxed.”
George, a returning starter like McCoy, scored in every quarter for
the Highlanders. In addition to her game-high 20 points, she also
grabbed nine rebounds, three of them on offense.
In the first half, she was fouled three times going to the basket and
made all five of her free throw attempts. She was a force inside for
the Highlanders and had to pick up the slack with fellow senior starters
Erin Ferguson and Alyssa Cranston out with injuries.
“That’s what we expect from Mallory,” GL sixth-year head coach Andy
Silvagni said. “She’s a tough kid, who has played four years and we
expect that from her every night.”
Cranford was minus returning starter Mairead McKeary, the junior also out with an injury.
Pacing Cranford in scoring was returning senior point guard Jenna
Goeller, who netted 14 points, including three 3-pointers. Her only free
throw gave Cranford its second lead at 8-7, her third 3-pointer tied
the game at 20-20 with 1:50 to go in the second quarter and her only
points of the second half – a layup in the third quarter – gave the
Cougars their third lead at 24-22.
“When we got the game to 20-20, we knew we had to stop George in the
second half because she had 12 points at halftime,” said Goeller, who
also had 12 points at intermission for her team.
George’s final two of three baskets in the third quarter produced the
game’s fifth and sixth ties, which were the final two times the
hotly-contested clash was deadlocked.
“Mallory’s a great player, so we had to pull together as a team and help a bit more on defense,” Goeller said.
Cranford’s other returning senior starter, Kaitlin McGovern, finished
with five points and six rebounds. Her final point, on a free throw
early in the fourth quarter, tied the game for the fourth time at 22-22.
McGovern was proud to say that she just found out Thursday that she
was accepted to Brown and that she will attend the Ivy League school.
McGovern said that she also seriously considered Ivy League school
Cornell, private Big Ten school Northwestern and also Lehigh.
“I just found out I got in, so I was a little reeling from that,”
McGovern said. “They have a really good engineering program and I want
to be an engineer. I also like Providence (Rhode Island, where the
school is located).”
“I can’t be prouder of her and Jess,” Dyer said. “We have a saying,
‘academics come first.’ They work hard both in the classroom and on the
court.”
McGovern was one of Cranford’s unsung players a year ago, her
performance on defense a big reason why the Cougars were able to post a
final record of 24-5.
Because of the rivalry Cranford has with GL, she knew it was going to be another battle until the end.
“We were kind of nervous because this was our last first game
together,” McGovern said, speaking of herself, McCoy and Goeller. “We
came out a little shaky, but we picked it up and so did they (GL). It
came down to the wire on the first day, but I’m happy because we won.”
Dyer will take the victory, but realized that it was not a
performance to brag about. Not many teams escape an opposing gym with a
victory after scoring only two points in the fourth quarter.
“I didn’t even realize that we scored just one basket in the fourth
quarter,” Dyer said. “I thought it was an all-around sloppy game by both
teams.”
When it looked like Cranford might begin to build separation after
the consecutive McCoy and Wischusen third-quarter 3-pointers, GL came
right back and wouldn’t allow it.
“When you play against teams like Governor Livingston you can’t get
comfortable with a six-point lead,” Dyer said. “They’re not going to
ever give up.”
GL had the ball with 56.9 seconds left and down only one point. The
Highlanders, after four passes, missed one shot, with a scramble on the
floor resulting in a jump ball in Cranford’s favor.
Following a timeout, the Cougars then passed the ball around before
Dilly almost stole it away. McCoy recovered the loose ball and Cranford
then managed a few more passes before McCoy was fouled with two seconds
left. After Cranford passed the ball in, McCoy dribbled away the final
two seconds.
“I thought our girls played tough and played basketball the way we
expected them to play,” Silvagni said. “We’re happy. The ball just
didn’t bounce our way. There’s a long season to go and a lot to improve
on.”
GL and Cranford split Mountain Division games last year, with
Cranford being the first team to beat GL – 49-44 at GL – after the
Highlanders got out to a 17-0 start.
GL then defeated Cranford 31-25 in the Union County Tournament
championship game at Kean University, which was the first county title
for the Highlanders. Cranford won its only UCT crown in 2006.
“That’s one of our goals, to win the county this year,” McCoy said.
“We wanted to keep the game in the high 20s or low 30s, so to be at
35 is right where we wanted to be,” Silvagni said. “The game was right
there for us to win. We had a lot of opportunities in the last three
minutes, but we didn’t capitalize.
“We’ll learn from it and get better.”
The rivals are scheduled to play at Cranford’s Martin Gymnasium Jan. 17 at 7 p.m.
UNION COUNTY CONFERENCE-WATCHUNG DIVISION
GIRLS’ BASKETBALL AT GOV. LIVINGSTON’S RED GYM
CRANFORD (1-0, 1-0) 8 12 15 2 – 37
GOV. LIVINGSTON (0-1, 0-1) 14 6 11 5 – 36
CRANFORD COUGARS (37):
20-Jess McCoy, senior, 2-2-3-13
32-Kerry Wischusen, junior, 1-1-0-5
4-Jenna Goeller, senior, 2-3-1-14
24-Kaitlin McGovern, senior, 1-0-3-5
15-Carly Maucione, junior, 0-0-0-0
11-Sarah Ross, freshman, 0-0-0-0
Starters: McCoy, Wischusen,
Goeller, McGovern, Maucione
Totals: 6-6-7-37
GOV. LIVINGSTON HIGHLANDERS (36):
15-Mallory George, senior, 7-0-6-20
23-Patrice DiTommaso, junior, 0-2-0-6
5-Marielle Jankowski, senior, 0-0-2-2
13-Haley Berliner, sophomore, 2-1-1-8
21-Sara Dilly, sophomore, 0-0-0-0
Starters: George, Jankowski,
DiTommaso, Berliner, Dilly
Totals: 9-3-9-36
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