Hightstown earns 3rd win on 1st day back
PRINCETON >> The Hightstown High and Princeton Day School girls’ basketball teams wanted to get a jump on the rest of area squads as they return from the holiday break.
So the Rams and the Panthers took to the court Wednesday in hopes of shaking the doldrums brought on by the time off from classes, while getting in some much needed work.
On a day when only one other area team was playing, these two clubs and their first-year head coaches went about trying to find out what they need to do to play better basketball in the second half of the season.
Hightstown showed it might be able to find more offensive consistency by playing better defense in defeating PDS, 48-17.
The Panthers, meanwhile, found more consistency in their scoring attack, seeing eight players reach the scorer’s column, which was even more than the Rams, who had seven players score.
“We’ve been getting better each game,” said Hightstown head coach Erin Scheno, who is being assisted by Jenna Marcus. “As they see things click, the girls are doing more and more of what they need to do.
“We’d like a lot more of them to become offensive threats. It’s really just about everybody knowing they can be a key part of the offense as well as the defense.”
The Rams’ initial six found their rhythm in the first two quarters with seniors Vicki Velez and Raya Mount scoring their 13 and 10 points, respectively, in the first half.
Velez scored the first five points of the game before PDS’ Caroline Topping made it a 5-2 game with 5:30 left in the first quarter. From there, the visitors took over, closing the stanza with a 14-0 run.
The Panthers quickly improved upon their early output in the second quarter, only to see Mount score seven of her points to lead Hightstown on a 16-3 burst to take a 35-5 lead into the break.
“We’ve made great progress, but having just returned from the break, I think our girls were feeling tired and were a few steps behind,” said PDS head coach Liz Sharlow, who is being assisted by Emilie Miller and Kira Dudeck.
Sharlow would understand that better than most, considering she got married over the break. She and her husband are postponing their honeymoon until after the season.
“The fact that we had eight players score is a good sign. We have a lot of people stepping up,” said Sharlow, whose team got three points apiece from sophomore Anna Ellwood and freshman Elle Anhut. “We’ll need to continue reminding them of what they want to bring to the table and the player they want to be.”
The Rams rested many of their starters in the second half, in order to allow more of their lineup to work on game situations. Sophomore Ali McDonough added eight points (six after intermission), and junior Leslie Pineda supplied seven points (three in the fourth quarter) to help the visitors stay basically even with the home team in the final eight minutes.
“We wanted the girls to play hard and spread the ball around a little more in the second half,” Scheno said. “The girls tend to play a run-and-gun style. We’re trying to get more balance.”
The earlier start helped Hightstown improve to 3-3 heading into its Friday home game with Lawrence.
The Panthers will use the extra time on the court to better prepare them for Saturday’s tough challenge at the Lawrenceville School.
HIGHTSTOWN (48)
Velez 4-2-13, Mount 4-0-10, ARusso 2-0-4, AMorris 1-0-2, Pineda 3-1-7, Borneo 0-0-0, McDonough 4-0-8, McKenna 0-0-0, Ratanpara 0-0-0, Benitez 2-0-4. Totals — 20-3-48.
PDS (17)
Allen 1-0-2, Peters-Acceus 0-0-0, Amaral 1-0-2, Kunkle 1-0-2, Ellwood 1-1-3, Topping 1-0-2, Weinstein 0-0-0, Zhang 1-0-2, Anhut 1-0-3, Nowack 0-0-0, TRobinson 0-1-1, Zarish-Yasunas 0-0-0.
Totals — 7-2-17. Hightstown(3-3) 19 16 8 5 — 48 PDS(1-8)2375—17
3-point goals: Velez 3, Mount 2 (H), Anhut (PDS).
OXBRIDGE 73, STUART 39
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The ThunderWolves handed the Tartans their second straight defeat.
Stuart (8-4) 10 9 10 10 — 39 Oxbridge(14-1) 18 18 19 18 — 73