Exhaustion sets in after two straight OT victories
By: John E. Powers
They were simply exhausted.
The Manville High School girls’ basketball team hugged each other, some had tears in their eyes and others just sighed. Nobody seemed to want to leave – they didn’t seem to have enough energy to do it.
The Manville High School home locker room was a haven for relief late last Thursday night as snow fell outside. The girls had flirted with disaster and survived a wild 58-51 overtime win over Hillside. Earlier in the week, the team escaped David Brearley of Kenilworth with another overtime win.
This second one might have been even wilder.
Senior point guard Lisa Lavenia, who fouled out with 5:26 left in the fourth quarter, broke some of the tension.
"I don’t have any nails left on my fingers," Lavenia said.
The game had as many twists and turns as any the girls have probably experienced. The 6-2 Mustangs had a 27-11 halftime lead, saw it evaporate in a matter of minutes early in the third quarter and got two enormous 3-pointers from senior Heather Mathieu – one that insured overtime, the other that put the team ahead for good in the extra period.
"She missed a couple, but you know what? She kept her head up and she made the two that counted," Manville coach Ryan Shapiro said.
Hillside, which battled back by outscoring Manville 35-19 in the second half, finished the game with four players on the court. Three Comets fouled out and two others were ruled ineligible after it was found that they had played too many quarters in the junior varsity game. Emotions were high not only on the court, but off it as well as the fans of both teams tried to out-shout each other as the crazy game went on.
Senior center Amy Ortman was battling a virus, then point guard Lisa Lavenia and senior forward Jessica Droz fouled out in the fourth quarter. Sophomore Dana Delesky came in and provided a huge boost when Lavenia went out.
Droz kept her team in the game in the third quarter when Hillside jumped back into it by scoring eight of Manville’s 11 points – the other three came on Matheiu’s bomb from the outside.
The first three was set up by Delesky. She raced down court, got to a loose ball and tapped it off a Hillside player to give Manville possession. With nine seconds left in regulation, Mathieu got a great look and got the home side jumping by draining a three to give her team a 46-44 lead.
But Hillside’s Kateema McLean tied the score at 46 with one second left on a short jumper in traffic.
"I tried to talk to the girls and made sure that they knew it wasn’t over," Shapiro said. "With nine seconds to go we wanted no fouls, no threes. But they broke our defense. Amy came out and she made it. It was a good shot. I knew 23 (McLean’s number) was going to get the ball."
Mathieu’s 3-pointer with 2:44 left in overtime put Manville ahead for good. With 1:10 left, Porsch Isom hit the first of two foul shots to pull Hillside to within 52-51. But Delesky made one of her own seven seconds later to boost the lead back to two. She hit another two with 21 seconds left to lift the cushion to 56-51 and Jenna Breslow wrapped it up with a driving layup.
"I was so nervous," Delesky said. "I was trying to think that we were already ahead and that we had a big lead. I was trying to keep the pressure out of my thinking."
Shapiro said he wanted to keep calling shots for Mathieu. She finished with 17 points, while Droz led the team with 20. But the big ones – the ones everybody will remember – were the ones Mathieu hit.
"My coach kept telling me to think shot and they would eventually fall," Mathieu said. "I had the confidence they would. I felt it today. We all had to step it up. It wasn’t a one-person thing."
Shapiro just sat on the bench and shook his head.
"We hung in there, but I don’t think we can continue to be cardiac kids," he said.

