By: Redd E. Patrick
The Monroe Township High School girls’ basketball team lost much more than the game when they hosted North Brunswick this past weekend. Early in the second quarter, sophomore center Ali Baumlin, coming down after a rebound, fractured a bone in her ankle. She will be out at least until a doctor’s assessment, scheduled for Feb. 5.
"Ali was boxing out inside, going for a rebound, came down on top of somebody else’s foot and turned her ankle," Lady Falcon head coach Keith Hudak said.
Baumlin averaged a double/double last year as a freshman, and it was expected that she would lead the team again this year on both ends of the court.
In spite of the shock, the Falcons pulled together and gave North Brunswick a good fight. Monroe had a slight 28-27 lead towards the end of the third period, but the Raiders (2-3) went on to win 37-34.
"Our girls played great," Hudak said. "We realized how much we depend upon Ali for certain things. We played over two and a half quarters without her and had the ball with a chance to either win or tie, a couple of times at the end. I don’t think we could ask for more."
Senior Lisa Gaydas stepped up her game, scoring 13 points with six rebounds, six assists and just one turnover. She was 4-for-5 from the free-throw line.
"This is a big loss for us, because Ali is a good player," Gaydas said. "But all of our girls came out ready to play good ball, and everybody played real good."
Lindsay Jones is a key defensive player for the Falcons. She had seven boards, including dunking her own offensive rebound towards the end of the game. Sixth man Laura Gibbons registered seven rebounds and five points.
Monroe had several chances to take the lead, especially in the fourth quarter, but the free-throw shooting was off.
"We can forget about everything else that we did," Hudak said. "We were 6-for-16 from the line. You can’t shoot 40 percent from the free throw line and expect to win a game."
In spite of North’s so-so record, Hudak got the fiercely competitive game he had anticipated from the Raiders.
"They had one player who was sick, and wasn’t playing with them, and somebody else was missing," Hudak said. "This was the first time they had their whole crew back, so we expected it to be tough."
North Brunswick’s Michelle Shelton doubled with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Joelle VonBischenhoffen and Brittany Miller added eight points apiece.
"Their girls were bigger than us, and they were wider," Gaydas said. "The coach warned us that they have a couple of wider girls that can get rebounds over us. We’re not that big of a team, but we managed pretty well against them."
THROW-INS: Jones was injured in practice this week, and will miss a few games, but Hudak was hoping to have her back by the end of next week . . . The Falcons host Allentown Saturday at 1 p.m., and they will be at Carteret Tuesday at 7 p.m.
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