Lady Mustangs drop two close ones in tourney

Girls enter New Year at 1-2

By: John E. Powers
   
   Considering the numbers, considering the fact that the Manville High School girls’ basketball team shot an average of 29 percent from the floor in its two holiday tournament games, it’s amazing they were so close.
   The girls were 0-for-2 for the Manville Holiday Tournament, losing the first game to Dunellen 39-36 before dropping a 31-29 consolation decision to North Plainfield. The Mustangs were set to open their January schedule last Friday with a 1-2 record.
   "It was tough," Manville first-year head coach Ryan Shapiro said. "We had our ups and downs, but the girls hung in there and played tough. The girls didn’t quit. I think it’s just the fact of it being early in the season. They’re still getting used to a new system."
   On the Monday following the tournament, Shapiro put the girls through a 2½-hour practice, starting off with a jump shot drill. The Lady Mustangs, who are known for their tenacity in running the floor, are still hurting in the perimeter game.
   Manville was 11-for-51 from the floor in the loss to North Plainfield with senior Jessica Droz leading the team with 17 points, the third time she’s led the team in scoring. She had 14 in the loss to Dunellen.
   In that game, Droz and senior center Amy Ortman fouled out in the second half, along with Dunellen’s Cathy Scerra and Katie Kime. Manville senior point guard Lisa Lavenia was plagued with four personals for most of the final two periods. The Mustangs suffered from 26 turnovers.
   "We stepped it up toward the end of both games," Lavenia said. "It’s not like we got blown out. We’re trying. We’re working hard."
   A Droz layup and a 3-pointer by Heather Mathieu gave the Mustangs a 21-18 with 5:28 left in the third quarter of the first game. But Dunellen went on a 12-0 run that ended when Veronica Bogomozova converted two free throws after Ortman was called with her fourth personal foul, then a technical foul with 1:44 left in the third quarter. That gave the Destroyers a 30-21 lead.
   "I really think that if Amy had finished the game we would have won," Shapiro said. "I think the referee thought that Amy had used a profanity, but the players who were around her said she didn’t."
   The Mustangs rebounded to cut the Dunellen lead to six on a Droz foul shot and layup to end the third quarter. Droz came through again with a three and another layup to cut the lead to 37-33 with 2:44 left. But she fouled out nine seconds later.
   Lavenia pulled the Mustangs to three with a foul shot and then cut the lead to 37-36 on a drive. Casey Blair’s layup off a fast break with 30 seconds left pushed the lead back to three at 39-36.
   Manville then came down and Lavenia missed a three with 10 seconds left.
   "We needed to come out with the kind of fire and intensity we showed in the latter parts of both games at the beginning of the games," Shapiro said. "We really had a shaky start to the second game."
   Against North Plainfield, the Mustangs fell behind 19-12 at the half, and then clawed to within 25-23 after three.
   "The last three minutes of the third quarter and the whole fourth quarter were fine," Shapiro said.
   Free throws were another problem. In the Friday game, the girls hit just 16-of-31 in the first game, but they were 5-for-7 in the second.
   "We had three goals this year – to win the Christmas Tournament, to win the division and the states," Lavenia said. "We really want to achieve something this year. We’ll put this these games behind us and keep working hard. We want it bad this year."
   Middlesex won the tournament by beating Dunellen 48-33.