Steinert beats divisional rival for second time
ROBBINSVILLE » Defeating a divisional opponent from the Colonial Valley Conference twice is not always as easy as it might sound.
The Steinert High varsity girls basketball team had to work a lot harder Thursday when it headed to Robbinsville High to play the Ravens for the second time in 10 days.
The Spartans, who had thumped their CVC Patriot Division foe by 33 points in their first meeting in Hamilton Square, found R’ville much more ready for the challenge this time around.
The Ravens stayed within a basket until the final shot of the first half when Steinert began to pull away for a 63-52 win.
It was the ninth consecutive win for coach Kristin Jacobs’ 12-3 squad, which will also face Allentown on the road at 5:30 p.m. Friday in a rescheduled matchup, which was originally going to be both teams’ regular-season finale Feb. 23.
Even if that change played into Thursday’s sloppiness (not helped by the 55 free throw attempts in the game), Robbinsville wanted badly to show that it was much better than its 73-40 loss to the Spartans Jan. 16.
“It was completely different this time,” Ravens senior guard/forward Julia Cueto said. “Since that first meeting, we’ve learned to work better together.”
Coach Joe Washington Jr.’s troops showed that by staying as close as 15-14 in the first quarter when Maya Johnson (11 points) hit a 3-point field goal just before the buzzer. Cueto was also a big help in that surge by scoring six of her seven points in the first quarter.
The lead switched hands six times in the second quarter and did not stretch higher than three points until Steinert junior guard/ forward Jayda Bing beat the halftime buzzer with a 3-pointer to give the visitors a 27-22 edge.
“We were working as hard as we could to keep our wins going,” said Bing, whose team has yet to lose in 2018. “Everybody’s putting in the same effort, which makes it easier.”
Little did Bing’s teammates know that her buzzer-beater would be the start of a 14-2 run, which continued into the third quarter. The Ravens could not stymie the surge until Molly Aromando (11 points) scored down the lane with 3:36 left in the third to trim Robbinsville’s lead to 38-26.
“We seem to struggle coming out at halftime,” Cueto said. “We have to get back on the court and get our heads in the game.”
The Ravens did that from that point on, trimming the Spartans’ lead to six points three times before the end of the third quarter, three more times in the fourth quarter, and then getting as close as five points on three other occasions in the fourth. R’ville senior leading scorer Fiona Aromando, who had been limited to six points over the first three quarters, scored nine in the final quarter to finish with 15 and give the home team a chance.
With Steinert guards Leila Collazo and Tatiana Dorner fouling out in the final eight minutes, Bing picked up her game to score as many points (nine) in the fourth quarter as she had in the first three to finish with a gamehigh 18 points.
Dorner and Natalie Mehl added 15 and 14 points, respectively, for the Spartans, but it was five free throws and a layup by Bing in the final 1:30, which sealed the deal after Robbinsville drew as close as 54-48.
“I know turning right around to play Allentown is going to be tough,” Bing said of Friday’s showdown with coach Linda Weise’s 11-2 team. “But I feel we’re strong enough to be in the game as long as everybody plays with confidence.”
Steinert is hoping that surviving a tough Patriot Division road game in its second meeting with the Ravens will be the perfect preparation.
Golik 2-2-6, Dorner 7-0-15, JoJones 0-0-0, Mehl 5-3-14, Bing 3-11-18, Collazo 2-0-6, CWood 2-0-4, VComfort 0-0-0, Pappas 0-0-0.
21-16-63.
Totals —
FAromando 3-8-15, Cueto 3-1-7, Heulitt 2-4-8, MJohnson 3-4-11, MAromando 5-0-11, Torrington 0-0-0.
Totals —
16-17-52.
Steinert (12-3) Robbnsvlle(5-9) 3-point goals — 15 14 12 8 17 14 19 — 16 — 63 52
Dorner, Mehl, Bing, Collazo 2 (S), FAromando, MJohnson, MAromando (R).