Mustangs hoping to have learned from 2002 season
Marlboro girls faced extraordinary external pressures
For the Marlboro High School girls’ basketball team, the 2001-02 season was less about failed expectations and more about their continued maturity on and off the court.
A year ago, the Mustangs, with five freshmen and a sophomore in their rotation, surprised, or rather shocked, the basketball world. They would rather emphatically state the case that their grade in school had nothing to do with their ability to win on the basketball court. They would win the Kuhnert Holiday Tournament and Shore Conference A North Division crowns, but the real breakthrough was capturing the Central Jersey Group IV title. They would advance to the State Group IV final, losing in overtime to a senior-dominated Columbia team.
With all of its mainstays returning, Marlboro was the team to watch and beat from Day One of the season. They had all the glamour and glitz, but also all the scrutiny and pressure to handle. Adding to the pressure, they were ranked as high at 13th in the country by USA Today. That, and the No. 1 ranking in the state, were not things the Mustangs asked for, but came their way. It was something completely new to them.
Reflecting on the national ranking, Pollack said that it was a distraction.
"It was a little too early for all of that," she said. "The national ranking did hurt because it did put a lot of pressure on us. Last year we just went out and played basketball. This year there was a lot more stuff to deal with.
"If we won by 30 points, we were running it up. If we won by 20, something was wrong," she added. "We matured this year."
Coach Craig Uplinger said the national ranking made his girls compete against an invisible opponent, taking away from the game itself.
"They had to carry the weight of the ranking with them," he pointed out. "You can’t slip up. The pressure of playing the team on the floor was enough."
The Mustangs held up well under the outside pressure. They repeated as the Kuhnert and A North champions and in the regular season, despite a beefed-up schedule, lost only to national powers Our Lady of Lourdes and Christ the King, both from New York.
At the Shore Conference Tournament, the Mustangs blasted Red Bank Catholic in the semifinals, avenging their loss to RBC at the same spot in the tournament the year before. That put them in the SCT final for the first time ever, but they were ambushed by St. John Vianney. The Holmdel Lancers avenged their two-point loss in the regular season to Marlboro with a 39-36 triumph that brought them their 10th title in the last 14 years. The Lancers were still the measuring stick in the Shore area.
Marlboro’s season-long goal of making it to the Tournament of Champions was still in sight when they entered the Central Jersey Group IV tournament. If anything, the Lancer loss had lifted some of the pressure off Marlboro — they were no longer No. 1 in the state. But the expectations remained TOC or bust.
Marlboro played some of their best ball of the season in the sectional, but their season came to a premature end on March 5 in the state sectional championship game at Sayreville High School.
A year earlier at the same venue, the young Mustangs had proved you can win as freshmen. In this year’s final they faced a senior-dominated Trenton squad that was the better team on that night. Trenton was a deserving 59-52 winner.
The Tornadoes had the best player on the court in their lightning-quick point guard Mykeema Ford, who repeatedly stuck a dagger in the Mustangs’ heart with one clutch play after another. The Tornadoes also had a 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 front line that could take full advantage of Marlboro’s lack of size. Hidden in all of Marlboro wins and lofty rankings was the fact that the team is not that deep nor big. Trenton was able to get the Mustangs’ size, Chakhia Cole and Sara Tanen, in foul trouble, and when they were on the bench, score at will inside.
Even with its weakness exposed, Marlboro found a way to will itself into the game. Christie Kastner scored 13 straight points in the second quarter, allowing Marlboro to trail by just 29-28 at half. Despite have Cole and Tanen on the bench for more than most of the third quarter, they found a way to trail by just four points after three quarters, 40-36. A Brina Pollack three brought them within one, and suddenly all of the match-up problems in the paint went away.
But the remarkable Ford would not let her team lose, and when she came down and matched Pollack’s three with one of her own, she showed that the Tornadoes were not going to let the lead slip away. They had the answer for every Mustangs’ charge, and at the buzzer had the win.
"We gave it our best shot," Uplinger remarked. "That’s all you can ask. I told the girls that they have nothing to be ashamed of. They played great and should keep their heads up."
Despite a 25-4 record, some may view the 2001-02 season as one of underachievement for Marlboro. After all, they didn’t get as far in the states as they had a year ago. The Mustangs preferred to look at it differently.
"It was a good season," said Pollack. "We didn’t get accomplished what we wanted, but it was fun."
Uplinger pointed to the team’s youth not as an excuse but as a reminder that the Mustangs are still far less experienced than the veteran teams that have defeated them.
"These are still young kids," he noted. "We’ve lost to senior teams the last two years. They’ve had two years of maturing under an awful lot of pressure."
Point guard Sharnee Zoll said the Mustangs grew in ways that aren’t noticeable on the basketball floor this year.
"We improved in a lot of ways team wise," she said. "We have grown as people. We’re working hard in the classroom and not just at basketball."
For Zoll, the biggest basketball lesson was paying attention to details, which begins with practice.
"We have to put the focus on working hard in practice," she explained. "You’re never too good to practice foul shooting or do extra dribbling. We have to work hard and stay together."
What is most important to the Mustangs’ success is that basketball is fun for them, and as long as it remains that way, they will continue to challenge for and win championships no matter what the outside world thinks.