OH, THE AGONY
Ewing drops one-point heartbreaker in Group III state final
TOMS RIVER » It is hard to feel proud when you are disappointed. Still, the Ewing High girls basketball team had every reason to feel that way Sunday.
The Blue Devils proved they belonged among the state’s best teams, even if they did not walk away with the ultimate reward.
In a game which figured to be the closest of the day at the NJSIAA Finals, the Ewing and Northern ValleyOld Tappan girls went down to the wire in the Group III state championship game at the RWJ Barnabas Health Arena before the Blue Devils came up on the short end of a 46-45 result.
The win was the second in the last four years for Old Tappan (28-4) and kept Ewing (26-6) from just its second state crown in its second state final appearance.
“I’m really proud of the girls,” Blue Devils head coach Mike Reynolds said. “They made an incredible run to have a chance at winning this game. They worked hard to get into position to win. Then things did not go our way.”
Against the Golden Knights, Ewing had trouble getting its offense going in the first half and fell into a 23-14 halftime hole. As late as the final 55.8 seconds of the third quarter, the Blue Devils still trailed by eight points, 36-28.
Things did not look much better when junior guard Jaycee Lowe, who was the top scorer in the game at the time, picked up her fourth foul 15 seconds into the fourth quarter.
But fueled by the exciting play of junior guard/forward MyAsia Jackson, Ewing turned up its intensity and went on a 12-5 run over the next 4:10 to overtake Old Tappan, 42-41, when Jackson scored with 3:35 left in the game. That marked the Blue Devils’ first lead since Jentle Sheridan scored on a backdoor pass from Mya Grimes for the game’s opening basket.
“I knew I needed to help my team out, especially with a lot of us in foul trouble,” said Jackson, who went on to lead all scorers with 16 points, all of which she scored in the second half. “We needed a spark.”
“I didn’t think we were being quick enough to the basket in the first half,” Reynolds said. “We had to get more aggressive going to the basket and rebounding. MyAsia really stepped up for us by using her physical abilities.”
Neither team scored again until Lowe hit 1-of-2 free throws with 2:16 to go. But before anyone could say “twopoint lead,” Golden Knights junior guard Noelle Gonzalez (13 points) drove the length of the court for a layup that tied the game.
After both teams missed a chance at taking the lead, Lowe (12 points) got free inside and scored with 1:05 remaining to put Ewing ahead, 45-43.
The Old Tappan players did
not fret. Instead, they went to their bread and butter as senior forward Sophie Downey thread the needle with a bounce pass in the lane to her classmate Alex George. They had worked the same play on their last trip, only to see the 6-foot-2 George’s shot roll out.
This time, however, George not only scored, but was fouled by Grimes, and completed the three-point play to put the Golden Knights back on top with 44.7 seconds left.
“That play is something Sophie and I do all the time. We work really well together,” said George (11 points), who does not plan to play basketball when she attends Drexel University next year. “I missed the one before that and remember thinking, ‘Why did you pass it to me?’ This time, I was happy not only to get the basket, but also the foul.”
As exciting as that play was for NVOT, the Blue Devils had the ball back with plenty of time to correct their mistake.
After a timeout with 33.2 seconds left, Lowe misfired on a 3-point attempt, but Ewing got the rebound. Reynolds called another time with 7.1 seconds to go.
“We were trying to get a screen across to Mya,” Reynolds said of his senior star who scored 10 points with 8-for-8 foul shooting. “But I explained to them, ‘You have enough time, so if you get something going to the basket, take it.’”
When Grimes was swarmed by Old Tappan’s defense, the ball was inbounded to senior point guard Kiyla Peterson at the top of the key.
Peterson, who, like Grimes is a 1,000-point scorer, made a nice spin move to loose her defender. But as she cut into the lane, the ball spun a little out of her reach and ended up in the grasp of Golden Knights junior guard Jackie Kelly as time was called with 0.2 seconds left.
“After they made their last basket, we had a run at them,” Jackson said. “Kiyla made a great move to get open. The ball just kicked away from her. It’s not how we wanted it to end, but I’m very proud of our team.”
After Old Tappan inbounded the ball and rushed the floor, that was not the easiest thing for any of the Blue Devils to admit. Yet, it was praise of which they were very deserving.