Steinert squashes Neptune to reach the semifinals
HAMILTON » Kristin Jacobs glanced over to a white space on the wall behind the basket and saw room for a banner.
Why can’t her Steinert High girls basketball team add a sectional title to its accomplishments?
Natalie Mehl scored 16 points, Tatiana Dorner finished with 14 and the third-seeded Spartans cruised past sixth-seeded Neptune, 68-29, and into the Central Jersey Group III semifinals on Wednesday night.
“They know they have as good a shot as any other team,” Jacobs said. “The mentality is why not us?”
Steinert set up a semifinal clash against second-seeded Allentown on Friday night at 5:30 p.m. The Redbirds won the first meeting, 50-47, on Jan. 26 and did it without star guard Ryan Weise.
Still, Jacobs feels like her team matches up well.
“They know that they can play with them,” Jacobs said. “They know (Allentown) is good, but they know they can play with them. They also know we split with (topseeded) Ewing, so I don’t think it’s that mystery of who’s above us right now.”
After giving up the first basket of the game on Wednesday, the Spartans wasted no time surging in front of the Scarlet Fliers (1312) and finished the first quarter on a 16-1 run.
By the time the first 16 minutes expired, Steinert led, 40-12, and was on its way to the semifinals.
“We came out with a little nervous jitters,” Jacobs said. “We played them in the second round last year at their place, but different teams, different players and I think there was a little bit of nervous energy in the beginning. When we got into our stuff and made our offense work for us and our defense work even harder, we were able to put some points on the board.”
Crysten Wood came off the bench to score 10 points for the Spartans.
Makayla Andrews netted 17 for Neptune.
Gardner 0-2-2, Kendle 0-1-1, Andres 7-3-17, Brackett 1-0-2, Yevchak 1-0-2, Mincey 0-0-0, Kunze 0-0-0, Tino 1-1-3, Aragon 1-0-2.
12-5-29.
Totals —
Collazo 2-0-6, Dorner 7-0-14, Bing 3-2-8, Mehl 4-716, Golik 3-2-8, Jones 0-0-0, CWood 4-1-10, Huth 0-0-0, Diszler 1-0-2, VComfort 0-0-0, Haley 0-0-0, Pappas 2-0-4.
26-12-69.
Totals — Neptune(13-12) Steinert (21-6) 3-point goals — 3 16 9 24 9 22 8 — 6 — 29 68
Collazo 2, Mehl, CWood (S).