Hopewell Valley turns tables on Princeton
HOPEWELL TWP. » Friday’s Princeton versus Hopewell Valley High girls’ basketball game figured to be an interesting matchup of some of the Colonial Valley Conference’s top interior players with the Tigers’ senior front line of 5-foot11 Nora Devine, 5-11 Sofia Aguayo and 5-10 Molly Brown going against the Bulldogs’ 5-11 junior Andie Cappucci and 6-1 sophomore Kennedy Havens.
It turned out to be a game of two very different halves.
Princeton moved the ball well and took advantage of its strengths in the first half to open a nine-point lead.
Hopewell Valley came out of the locker room by turning up its defense to stifling and taking advantage of its high-post cuts to turn the game completely around.
The Bulldogs held the Tigers to one basket the entire second half to grab a 28-20 victory.
“After our first half,” Havens said in remembering the 18-9 hole her team found itself in at intermission, “we had a little bit harsh of a conversation, but it was the motivation we needed to get us going. We knew if we wanted to beat them we had to come out playing our 2-3 defense much more aggressively with pressure. And we were really motivated to make sure we had no more stupid turnovers.”
Princeton had 12 steals and six blocked shots, mostly in the first half to set the tone as Devine scored seven and Aguayo scored five points. Neither player scored again as the Bulldogs cut down dribbling and passing lanes, making it hard for the Tigers to get in their sets.
“They picked up their intensity a lot in the second half, and we weren’t necessarily ready for it,” said Devine, a Syracuse rowing commit who led all players with 14 rebounds and four blocked shots. “We had a similar game against Steinert Tuesday (which Princeton pulled out, 39-36, in double overtime). We’re working on staying mentally strong. We need to execute the whole game instead of just for two quarters.”
This time, Hopewell, which had only scored six points in the first half until Katie Rowe came off the bench and hit a 3-point field goal with 13.8 seconds left, refused to let the Tigers get going again.
A steal and score by Kate Tillman midway through the third quarter pulled the home team within, 18-14. Then, a 3-pointer by Gillian Magner with 2:10 left in the stanza cut the deficit to one point.
Fifteen seconds later, Hailey Rowe came up with a steal and led Cappucci for a layup, giving the Bulldogs their first lead at 19-18.
After a free throw by Hailey Rowe and a foul-line jumper from Havens, the visitors scored their only basket of the quarter when Leah Rose-Seiden
hit a jump shot from just inside the 3-point line to make it a 22-20 game.
Little did anyone know that would be the only points Princeton would register the rest of the way.
“We’ve been struggling at times, but I feel we can be a really strong duo,” Havens said of playing alongside Cappucci.
Havens scored seven of her
game-high nine points in the second half to go with nine rebounds. Cappucci only had four points, but also had nine rebounds.
Magner scored five points, all in the second half, including two foul shots with 34.5 seconds to go to push the home team’s lead to 26-20. Then Havens iced the game when she scored down the lane off a lead
from Hailey Rowe (five assists) with 10 seconds left.
PRINCETON (20)
MBrown 1-0-2, Devine 3-1-7, Aguayo 2-1-5, KChao 1-0-2, Luo 10-2, Rose-Seiden 1-0-2, Moran 0-0-0, Caruso 0-0-0.
Totals — 9-2-20.
HOPEWELL VALLEY (28)
HRowe 0-1-1, KRowe 1-0-3, Ryan 1-0-2, Randazzo 0-0-0, Tillman 1-0-2, Cappucci 2-0-4, Laitusis 1-0-2, Danieluk 0-0-0, Havens 4-1-9, Magner 1-2-5.
Totals — 11-4-28.
Princeton (3-2) 10 8 2 0 — 20 Hopewell Val. (7-3) 4 5 13 6 — 28 3-point goals — KRowe, Magner (HV).