Good showing for Viking girls in GMCT

By: Carolyn M. Hartko
   EDISON — For a team that only had six wins going into this year’s Greater Middlesex Conference Girls’ Basketball Tournament, South Brunswick High School put on a good show. The 14th seeded Vikings got by 19th seeded Piscataway 49-37 in the opening round, before falling to third ranked J.P. Stevens in the second round.
   Stevens (16-5) had a first round bye, then went on to top Cardinal McCarrick 55-42 in the quarterfinals. This year’s final four teams in the girls’ tournament are all members of the GMC’s Red Division. Facing the best in the conference all through the regular season, Viking head coach Jaymee Boehmer felt her squad was battle ready going into the tourney.
   "Our girls knew what we had to do," Boehmer said. "From being in the Red Division, we’re not scared to play anybody. So (tournament jitters) don’t really affect us. It just depends on what we can do on our own, like, if we can score, if we can keep it together, and just do whatever we have to do."
   The first element was missing from last Friday night’s game at Stevens. The Lady Hawks buried the Vikings with a 21-6 first quarter, where it seemed that South couldn’t buy a basket.
   "If it wasn’t for the first quarter, we really would have been OK," Boehmer said. "We outscored them in the second half. I think if we didn’t dig ourselves so deep in the first quarter, we really might have had a shot at them at the end."
   Stevens’ guard Stephanie Marciano scored 18 of her game-high 25 points in the first half of the game, leading the Hawks to 38-18 by the halftime break. Point guard Tania Kennedy and Ayana Way each added 14 for the Hawks. The bad news is that all three girls are juniors, so Stevens can look forward to at least one more good year in 2003-2004.
   "Kennedy made all-Red Division, so she’s a good player," Boehmer said.
   Junior guard Heather Domotor led the Vikings with 14 points, six rebounds and two steals. She was 3-for-4 from the free throw line. The seniors closed out their careers on a positive note, with Larissa Rogan posting 11 points and eight rebounds. Deana Bollaci had her best game of the season, adding nine points, two rebounds and a steal. Karin Jensen grabbed six off the boards, had one steal, and was 2-for-2 at the line. Junior Pam Weiss accounted for eight rebounds.
   "Especially in the second half, I thought we did much better rebounding," Boehmer said. "But it always comes down to the same thing – we have to score, and we struggle with that."
   The highlight of the game, at least for the Vikings, was their 16-point run in the closing three minutes Friday night. Bollaci got things going when she hit the front end of a 1-and-1. Weiss lifted one in traffic, then sank a free throw on a later play. Domotor nailed a three-pointer, followed by free throws from Rogan and Jensen. Bollaci added another basket, and Rogan closed out the game with goals in the closing seconds. She banked an offensive rebound, then grabbed one off the glass on the defensive end and drove the length of the court for a nice lay-up.
   Boehmer has said that they need to have three girls in double digits in order to win games, but the Vikings were able to do it with only two against Piscataway in the tourney opener. Domotor and freshman Jessica Mastronardi ended up with 14 points apiece. Rogan was third in line with eight points and six boards. Weiss led on defense with 11 rebounds, and Domotor had seven.
   "That was a nice game for us," Boehmer said. "We pressed for a whole game, which was nice. I think we played well, so it was a good game."
   This marks the end of the 2002-2003 season for the Lady Vikings, and they finish up 7-15 overall.