Augustine’s seven 3s help Pennington escape

PENNINGTON >> As two former Mercer County Tournament champions, the Pennington School and Trenton Catholic Preparatory Academy varsity girls’ basketball teams wanted badly to advance to Trenton’s CURE Insurance Arena, site of the Championship Bracket’s semifinal and final rounds.

With a quarterfinal match-up Saturday at Sparks Memorial Gymnasium, only one was going to be able to make that trip.

Both fought valiantly with their stars shining as one would expect in the biggest games.

The Red Hawks were able to prevail, 66-56, in part because 5-foot-7 sophomore guard Izzy Augustine got hot at the right time, draining five of a career-high seven 3-point field goals in just over the final eight minutes to give the home team breathing room.

Third-seeded Pennington (18-4) advances to play second-seeded Hightstown (20-5) at 3 p.m. Tuesday at the CIA.

“I don’t know what it is. In the second half, I’ve been hitting my shots. I’ve been feeling it more after halftime,” Augustine said.

She finished with 23 points, which, when combined with 5-11 junior guard/forward Morgan

Matthews’ game-high 28 points, helped head coach Carmen Cook’s Red Hawks hold on after head coach Sherika Salmon’s Mikes had closed the gap to one point in the final minute of the third quarter.

But after 5-9 junior guard Mayah Alford scored off a pass from 5-8 junior guard Saniyah Spell with 35 seconds left in the third quarter to trim Pennington’s lead to 38-37, Augustine closed the stanza with a buzzer-beating trey.

She proceeded to hit two more in the first 2:14 of the fourth quarter to stretch the home team’s advantage to 51-42, then two more after Spell (18 points, including four treys) hit two 3-pointers of her own to get TCPA back as close as 51-47 with five minutes left.

“We had to keep an eye on Morgan and key on their shooter in the corner (Augustine),” said Alford, who supplied 16 points and 13 rebounds to the Mikes’ attack. “We tried to double (Matthews) up, but they were able to find the open player. We had to work through it.”

It did not help the visitors when Augustine, who had injured her foot in warm-ups, found her touch in the second half, draining six of her longdistance bombs.

“With all the attention they were paying Morgan, I was hoping they might lose track of me,” Augustine said.

Her production was important because 5-6 senior guard Macayla Rodriguez was out of the rotation for three minutes in the third quarter because of a hit she took. She returned, and, along with 5-6 senior forward Claire King (five assists, 10 rebounds) and 5-6 freshman guard Anna Hokkanen, was able to break the Mikes’ pressure and find an open Augustine.

“Yes, we were concerned about going up against them again because when we played them in January, they beat us (57-49 at Trenton Catholic Prep),” Augustine said. “So we knew they would come in with a lot of energy. We had to double the energy they were bringing.”

What more could anyone expect from two former MCT champions who stayed within five points of each other until the final five minutes as Pennington outscored Trenton Catholic, 25-19, in the most productive last quarter.

TRENTON CATHOLIC PREP (56)

CThompson 3-0-8, Oliphant 2-4-8, Lima 0-0-0, Alford 7-2-16, Spell 6-2-18, ASmith 0-0-0, Powell 0-0-0, Moore 2-26, Kanu 0-0-0. Totals — 20-10-56.

PENNINGTON (66)

MRodriguez 3-0-6, King 0-2-2, Matthews 10-8-28, Augustine 8-0-23, GHall 3-1-7, O’Connell 0-0-0, Hokkanen 0-0-0. Totals — 24-11-66.

TCPA (11-9) 12 11 14 19 — 56 Pennington (18-4) 17 12 12 25 — 66 3-point goals — CThompson 2, Spell 4 (TCP), Augustine 7 (P).

HIGHTSTOWN 66, ROBBINSVILLE 33

HIGHTSTOWN >> Kyla Glasser-Hyman’s 15 points led three Rams in double figures as the second seed moved past the seventhseeded Ravens in the MCT Championship Bracket.

Angelina Benitez and Abby Misier followed with 13 and 12 points, respectively.

Ava Aldarelli had a game-high 21 points for R’ville.

ROBBINSVILLE (33)

AReagan 0-0-0, Maleson 0-3-3, Fowler 0-3-3, Nadig 0-0-0, Chianese 0-0-0, Bottoni 1-0-3, Mora Blancafort 1-1-3, Aldarelli 6-8-21.

Totals — 8-15-33.

HIGHTSTOWN (66)

Glasser-Hyman 6-2-15, Caylo 2-0-5, Gappa 1-1-3, Ragland 0-5-5, Misier 6-012, ABenitez 5-3-13, Nagle 1-0-2, Swarn 4-0-8, ORoberts 1-0-3.

Totals — 26-11-66. Robbinsville (11-13) 6 7 8 12 — 33 Hightstown (20-5) 18 15 17 16 — 66 3-point goals — Bottoni, Aldarelli (R), Glasser-Hyman, Caylo, ORobertts (H).

EWING 58, TRENTON 30 EWING >> Te’Yala Delfosse’s 16 points, Rhian Stokes’ 14 points and Joi Johnson’s 12 points carried the topseeded Blue Devils past the eighth-seeded Tornadoes in MCT Championship Bracket action.

Gabriella Smith’s eight points were the most for Trenton.

TRENTON (30)

Spencer 0-0-0, Ferguson 0-2-2, Blackshear 0-0-0, JRobinson 1-1-3, Shuman 0-0-0, Glanton 3-0-6, GSmith 3-2-8, Delacruz 2-0-4, Baldwin 0-0-0, Daudin 3-0-6, Pacheco 0-0-0, Jennings 0-1-1, Ramos 0-0-0.

Totals — 12-6-30.

EWING (58)

JJohnson 5-2-12, Stokes 6-1-14, Delfosse 8-0-16, Biggs 2-0-4, Durham 2-0-4, MMiller 1-0-2, Brown-Upshur 2-0-4, TWilliams 0-0-0, SGlover 0-0-0, Sibeudu 0-0-0, Torbor 0-0-0, Quaye 1-0-2. Totals — 27-3-58.

Trenton (10-12) 0 6 7 17 — 30 Ewing (22-3) 20 13 19 6 — 58 3-point goal — Stokes (E).