Pirates knock off Trenton, face Marlboro on Wednesday
By: Justin Feil
TRENTON What has kept the West Windsor-Plainsboro High South girls’ basketball team going through the Central Jersey Group IV playoffs is the same thing that kept the soccer and volleyball teams playing late into the fall.
"I guess there’s more of a sense of urgency now," said WW-PS head basketball coach Beth Fitzpatrick. "I guess that’s understandable, too. We have six seniors who don’t want it to end. But there are other teams out there with seniors and they should have that urgency, but you don’t always see it. It’s a tribute to these girls."
The Pirates played with urgency again Friday in a 37-36 win over Trenton in the CJ IV semifinal at Tornado Alley. And WW-PS showed its experience by calmly making the plays down the stretch to win them the game and advance to Wednesday’s 8 p.m. scheduled game against top-seeded Marlboro at Sayreville High. The Pirates are a school record 22-3, Marlboro is 23-2. Inclement weather postponed the game until Wednesday, but it might be the only thing that can stop the Pirates’ march toward a CJ IV crown.
"We’re a senior team and we have experience," said Laine Jelenic, who led all scorers Friday with 19 points. "They’re a good, young team with a lot of freshmen. Even if they’re talented, they’ve never played in a (CJ) final. We did it in soccer. We have that experience. The senior leadership will help us do it. We have to do it. It’s our last shot."
WW-PS remained calm as Friday’s action got the most heated. The Pirates led from the first two minutes of the game until there were just over three minutes to play. That’s when WW-PS, which had beaten Trenton 12 days earlier in the same Alley, buckled down and their experience stood out.
Jelenic converted a one-and-one situation to give WW-PS a 35-34 lead with 1:56 to go. Katie Lala stole a tipped pass from Mykeema Ford, but Trenton’s Charnette Phelps put the Tornadoes ahead, 36-35, on a lay-up when she was fouled. She missed the foul shot, but Asia Dowling walked to give the ball back to WW-PS. The Pirates’ Ayesha Fitchett then hurried the ball up court and swiftly bolted unguarded to the basket for a lay-up with 19 seconds left to provide the 37-36 advantage.
"We knew we had to keep our composure," said Fitchett, who also scored the game-winning lay-up in WW-PS’ 53-51 win over Trenton two weeks before. "When we were down by one, we kept our heads up like the last time we were here and won. They made a mistake. I knew I was open right away because I saw Mykeema on Laine. No one was on me. I just came right down the middle. I thought I’d get fouled or get the two."
There was still plenty of time for Trenton, but WW-PS wouldn’t have it. It was Jelenic, then, that tied up Ford on a jump shot with eight ticks remaining and the possession arrow gave the Pirates the ball. Fitchett was fouled and after she missed her first shot, Ford took the ball down court and fired a three-pointer from the right corner. It skimmed off to set off a frenzied celebration that quite contrasted WW-PS’ composed style of play.
"We’ve improved so much on our half-court offense," Fitzpatrick said. "We knew if we couldn’t run our half court, we wouldn’t win this year. We knew in both situations (vs. Trenton) what to do. I didn’t have to call timeouts. We’ve really worked on it. It just shows how tough these girls are."
WW-PS played without the services of Alexis Merdjanoff, their tallest player, who is out with a sprained ankle and without Sarah Lala, who received a deep thigh contusion in the CJ IV quarterfinal win over Hunterdon Central last Wednesday. Freshman Lindsay Williams, in just her fifth varsity game of the season, came in to provide a lift for WW-PS with a basket and a pair of rebounds and Rashanna Edwards came off the bench to supply strong defense and another pair of incredible rebounds against the towering Tornadoes. The seven-person rotation was enough to get them through a hyped up environment.
"We were pretty confident about it," Fitzpatrick said. "It helped that we came out so intense in the first. I think it’s that the girls don’t want it to be over. Going to the Alley, and playing once and winning, we already knew we could win. I feel really good about them."
There was plenty to celebrate Friday, but there was also another game for which to prepare. Despite the storm warnings that have wreaked havoc on the WW-PS practice plans, the Pirates got a hard practice in Saturday in anticipation of another difficult matchup.
"We’re going to stick to the things that we’ve been doing all season long," Jelenic said. "This feels great. It’s what we expected though. People were still talking as though we were underdogs against (Trenton). They’re a lot bigger than us. They had a couple inches on us, a couple pounds on us. But we didn’t back down."
Marlboro has some size, but they’re not Trenton tall. They also have some speed, but nothing that WW-PS expects it can’t handle. And Marlboro knocked off Hillsborough, 48-41, in the CJ IV semifinal. The Pirates handed Hillsborough a double-digit loss in the South Brunswick Christmas tournament.
"They play a 1-3-1 trapping zone," Fitzpatrick noted of Marlboro. "It’s great for us. We’re good when we’re pressed. Hunterdon tried to press us and they couldn’t. We worked a lot on our ball rotation on Saturday. We do a good job of that. We’ll be able to play man. I think we have one of the best man defenses in the state. I don’t think they’ve seen a defense like ours. I feel the girls are prepared. We’re ready to rock and roll. We don’t want it to end."