Bordentown outlasts Florence

BORDENTOWN >> The Bordentown and Florence High girls basketball teams are still learning what they need to do to be successful squads.

Part of that can be attributed to inexperience. But when these two teams get together in just about any sport, the contest is about toughness.

The Scotties outlasted the Flashes, 42-31, Saturday in a game which had 50 fouls called, four players foul out (two aside), 70 foul shots taken and only 23 fouls shots made (33 percent).

Yes, those who showed up to see girls basketball saw a football game break out.

But then it was Bordentown versus Florence. These young ladies are raised to be tough. The biggest bruise either would have felt Sunday was losing a game both believed they could win.

“This game was intense,” Scotties 5-foot-5 freshman guard Oshynn Cosom said. “It was very fast moving, so I tried to keep pace with the older girls.”

Cosom downplayed her role in the game a little. She tied for the game high in scoring with Flashes 5-6 senior guard Anna Foehr and had plenty of chances to be the sole leader were it not for 7-for-17 shooting at the foul line.

“Yeah, the foul shots,” Cosom said, letting out a sigh. “At practice, that’s a really big thing we focus on.”

That and defense as 11th-year head coach Bill Lloyd pointed out.

“My halftime speech was about defensive intensity,” Lloyd said, remembering how his team had rallied from a 10-9 deficit after one quarter to take a 2218 lead at the break. “We’re so young. Most of them were either playing in middle school or junior varsity last year, so they’re still learning the varsity speed.”

Varsity aggressiveness, however, was understood, especially against Florence.

Second-year head coach Gina Smith’s still green team entered the game with a 3-3 record, which was three more wins than they had all of last season. With Bordentown having dropped five of its first six games, the Flashes may not have been as focused as they needed to be on the task at hand.

“For us, this was about being there together,” said Foehr, who got knocked down hard three times in the second half, only to get up to bury three raindrop 3-point field goals to keep her team within striking distance. “We know we trust each other, but at times today, we didn’t play that way. We were coming off a high from our last win, and I think we underlooked them a bit because of their record.”

Cosom, who got the home team back the lead, 20-18, with a 3-pointer of her own with two minutes left in the first half, came back to score four of her team’s 10 in the third quarter to extend the advantage to 32-21.

Aja Reeves, a 5-9 junior forward, scored six points and pulled down eight rebounds in the fourth quarter alone to help Bordentown maintain its 11-point lead.

Sophia Peterson added seven points for the Scotties, while Samantha Cartier and Daisha Gardner helped Florence hang tough with five points apiece.

FLORENCE (31)

Cartier 2-1-5, Foehr 4-3-14, Gardner 2-1-5, Barrett 2-0-4, SSmith 0-0-0, TJones 0-1-1, OSmith 0-0-0, Nuagbaraji 1-0-2, Carnival 0-0-0. Totals — 11-6-31.

BORDENTOWN (42)

Luyber 1-0-2, Drew 1-0-2, Reeves 2-2-6, Baker 1-1-3, Reed 1-2-4, Conover 1-2-4, Cosom 3-7-14, SPeterson 2-3-7. Totals — 12-17-42.

Florence (3-4) 10 8 3 10 — 31 Bordentown(2-5) 9 13 10 10 — 42 3-point goals: Foehr 3 (F), Cosom (B).