Prep school hoops get underway
Even with the coronavirus pandemic refusing to fully go away, Mercer County’s six prep girls’ basketball teams have been getting back into full-on action this week.
Play gets into full swing this weekend with the sixth-annual Peddie School Tip-Off Tournament at the Erik B. Hanson Field House within the campus’ Ian H. Graham Athletic Center.
Hun, Pennington, Peddie and Lawrenceville will take part as the tournament’s field expands to eight teams and three days this season. Other changes of note, each game in the Tip-Off will feature nine-minute quarters and a 30-second shot clock.
The tournament continues through Sunday with games at 4 p.m., 5:30 p.m., 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Saturday. The seventh-place game will begin at 9 a.m. Sunday, followed by the fifth-place game at 10:30 a.m., the third-place game at noon and the championship at 1:30 p.m.
The Peddie Tip-Off also includes teams from Canada, New Hampshire, Northern New Jersey and Maryland, which will be an interesting change for the locals, who were limited to playing within the county last season.
In fact, Lawrenceville has not played outside competition since the 201920 campaign. Head coach Grey Simpson’s squad has only one player, his daughter, Taylor, a 5-foot-8 senior guard, who saw significant time with that squad.
Now the Big Red will count on Maria Sanmartin, a 5-6 senior guard from Spain, and six-foot senior center Campbell FitzHugh, who was a reserve with the club in the past, to be among the team’s leaders.
“Our focus right now is ‘Let’s get out there and play,’” Grey Simpson said. “It’s going to take us time, but we will come together as a team. Before we can get there, the girls have to understand what we do and how we do it.”
Tournament host Peddie did not get to play until the last two weeks of the season a year ago. The four games the Falcons played helped show this season’s seniors — Caroline Johnson, a 5-6 guard; Ciara Loughran, 5-8 guard; and Alexis Tamm, a 5-5 guard — what they need to do to direct head coach Kurt Bennett’s squad.
“Our team is deep, and our team chemistry is good,” Bennett said. “We’ll play with a lot of energy. We want to play the best competition we can. The quality of teams and schools we have coming in for this tournament will only help.”
Hun was one of the best teams around last season, but, like Peddie, graduated three key contributors who will be hard to replace.
Head coach Bill Holup has made strides to do so by bringing in 5-7 postgraduate guard Erin Maguire, the third of a trio of sisters from Ireland who have graced the floor for the Raiders. She will join 5-8 senior guard/forward Kiera Hahn and 5-6 senior guard Lily L’Oiseau in helping lead a young and tall cast of newcomers.
“We have a lot of potential,” Holup said. “But the players still need to their roles and learn our system as well as each other’s strengths and weaknesses.”
Pennington enters 202122 with a new coach, Scott O’Neil, who previously worked with the club in the summer. Back are high scorers Mary Kathryn “M.K.” Kramli, a 5-8 senior guard who averaged 14.9 points per game last year, and 5-11 sophomore guard Morgan Matthews, who turned in 16 ppg in her first year with the Red Raiders.
“The girls need to play more games this season to get their game speed, intensity and rhythm,” said O’Neil, who has his squad playing five consecutive days to start the season. “The style of play will be quite different. There will be much more pace. We’ll play hard on defense.”
Stuart Country Day was one of the best teams in the area the last few years, but graduated their starting five, which included players between 5-9 and 6-4, three of whom are playing Division I ball.
Head coach Justin Leith’s new-look Tartans will be noticeably smaller (no one taller than 5-8) when they host Pennington in their opener Tuesday. But the Stuart players are sure to display the ferocity they learned from those past teams.
Senior returnees Gaby Velazquez-Gonzales, a 5-4 guard, and Lauren Richey, a 5-6 guard, will be looked to for leadership, especially in the absence of 5-8 senior shooting guard Lauren Klein, who is out with an injury.
“Our five starters have a least one year where they got some minutes,” said Leith, whose team will not be playing a national schedule like it did in recent sea- sons. “They practiced with those girls who graduated, so when they get out there on the floor, they think ‘We’re used to this.’”
In its first season with dual membership in the New Jersey Independent Schools Athletics Association and New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletics Association, Princeton
Day School will get a later start than most. Their Dec. 17 opening date gives head coach Seraphine Hamilton more time to work with her relatively young club, which will look to senior holdovers like 5-6 guard Elle Anhut, 5-4 guard Madeline Nowack, 5-4 guard Meghan Zarish-Yasunas and 5-7 guard Ali Surace for leadership.
“This season we’re focusing on being more consistent and running in transition,” Hamilton said. “Part of it is the girls knowing each other’s moves, reading each other well and playing off one another.”
Fans will be permitted at these indoor games, but, because of COVID-19, each school has its own policies regarding vaccination status, masking and social dis- tancing. It is best to check each school’s website prior to showing up, so you can be prepared.