Rams pull away from Cardinals in opener
LAWRENCE » When you see Abby Misier step onto the court, you will not know she is a freshman.
That’s good news for the Hightstown High varsity girls’ basketball team and bad news for their opponents.
Misier is a 6-foot-3 freshman who gives the Rams an immediate inside presence who is still growing and only going to get better.
Though her team bus arrived a little late at Lawrence High Tuesday for Hightstown’s season opener of this shortened 2021 season, Misier made the most of nearly three quarters on the court to help her new team take a 47-28 win in its opener.
Misier, who missed playing in eighth grade because of an injury to her posterior cruciate ligament which required surgery and a 10-month recovery, got better as the game went on, finishing with 10 points and 15 rebounds in her first varsity contest.
That put Misier second in scoring on the team behind sophomore guard Kelly McAleer, who finished with 14 points and six steals, to help the visitors break open a game they led just, 9-5, after one quarter.
“It was nerve-wracking,” Misier said. “I don’t want (how she played) to get in my head. I’m usually hard on myself. After coming back from the PCL injury, I started working on my game more over the summer.”
With coronavirus concerns then and now, that was not an easy task, yet Misier and her teammates had a week more of practice time than Lawrence, which did not begin until last week.
While that might not sound like much difference, it was noticeable as both teams tried to find a rhythm in their first game during these trying times.
The Cardinals were still as close as 12-10 after senior guard Briana Audet hit a long 3-point field goal with 6:21 left in the second quarter. But when 5-11 senior forward Kendra Dempsey, Lawrence’s tallest player, picked up her third foul in the middle of that stanza, things slowly started to slide.
Akshaya Shivaparan hit a pair of free throws to keep the home team as close as 19-12 with under three minutes to play in the half, but McAleer ignited an 8-0 surge by Hightstown over the final 1:30 of the half. McAleer, who is a foot shorter than Misier, did her own damage by scoring six of
those points to put first-year head coach Jenna Marcus’ team up, 2712, at the break.
“We still need to work on our communication and find our chemistry,” said McDaniel College-bound Audet, who led fourthyear head coach Antonio Stapleton’s Cardinals with 12 points. “We’re used to having three or four scrimmages before we have a real game. This year, we’re working on the fly. We got to go all into practice, then just play.”
That was bad news when the third quarter rolled around as Dempsey picked up her fourth foul 1:01 in and the Rams reeled off 16 unanswered points before Shivaparan (seven points) stopped the string with Lawrence’s
lone bucket of the third quarter as 27.5 seconds remained.
Izzy Benitez added nine points for Hightstown as it opened a 43-14 edge after three quarters. Even though the home team outscored the visitors, 14-4, in the final stanza, it was not enough to Misier, McAleer and Co.
AMcDonough 1-1-3, McGowan 0-0-0, McKenna 2-0-5, IBenitez 4-1-9, MMcDonough 0-0-0, McAleer 6-1-14, Caylo 0-0-0, Gappa 0-0-0, Poulter 0-2-2, Misier 5-0-10, ABenitez 2-0-4, Zimmer 0-00, Muthyala 0-0-0.
Totals — 20-5-47.
Audet 3-5-12, Dempsey 0-0-0, Driver 2-0-5, Shivaparan 1-5-7, Ciuffreda 0-0-0, Sae-Wang 0-0-0, Coyle 2-0-4, Berewidougou 0-0-0, Wooding 0-0-0, Aiyar 0-0-0.
Totals — 8-10-28.
Hightstown (1-0) 9 18 16 4 — 47 Lawrence (0-1) 5 7 2 14 — 28
3-point goals: McKenna, McAleer (H), Audet, Driver (L).