MHS girls earn first C

Cougars capture Gene Haley Tournament

By: Justin Feil
   The Montgomery High girls’ basketball team has its share of good students, but the Cougars are shooting for C’s this season.
   "We have three C’s — Christmas, conference and county," said MHS head coach Paul Popadiuk, whose team defeated Edison, 56-33, to capture the Gene Haley Holiday Tournament at JFK-Iselin on Wednesday. "This is one of three championships we can get. They went after it. We started strong for it. It’s the first game this year where we came out and played strong."
   Call it a long time coming for the Cougars, who claimed their first holiday tournament since winning the Len Sepanak Tournament three years ago.
   "It feels pretty good," said Megan Fox, who followed up her 16-point, 21-rebound performance in a 56-27 win over host JFK-Iselin on Tuesday with 19 points in the title game Wednesday. "This is the first one that any of us have been an actual part of."
   All the MHS players were instrumental in the championship. It was the Cougar defense that led the way in both tournament victories.
   "Defense-wise, our athleticism helps us out," Fox said. "We can play every team man-to-man."
   After holding a six-point edge at halftime as it worked to perfect its press defense, MHS retreated to its stifling half-court man-to-man to silence the Edison offense. At the other end, the Cougars fed Fox for a steady diet of layups while Ali Tartacoff, who finished with 17 second-half points, did the damage from the outside. MHS was able to find Fox despite Edison’s best efforts to double-, triple- and even quadruple-team the senior center.
   "A lot of times, when it’s hard to get me the ball, it’s because we’re not pushing the ball," Fox said. "On rebounds, we got it right out to the outlet and didn’t give teams a chance to set up their defense. Then, it’s a lot easier to get the ball and score.
   "This is the most athletic team I’ve been on. We like to run. None of us have any problem with that."
   Fox credited both the MHS press and the team’s strong rebounding effort with Wednesday’s convincing victory.
   "Rebounding, we did well," she said. "I was taller than a lot of the girls on the other teams. I had a height advantage, and I was able to get a lot of rebounds. Katie Wiseman got a lot of steals. And when she got one, she’d push it up and we got easy baskets. We had a lot of steals. Our press is working a lot better this year."
   And it’s still developing. MHS returns all but Meghan O’Toole from last year’s 18-win team, and the Cougars have raced out to a 4-1 start like a veteran team is expected to do.
   "I’m very pleased," Popadiuk said. "I had three tough games that I looked at in the preseason. Voorhees, who we’ve never beaten. Ridge, who we split with before, and now we have to go up there. And Hopewell, who we went to four overtimes with. I didn’t know Cramp would get hurt, but I still thought we could be 3-0 or we could be 0-3 if we played OK. We came out, and to be 4-1 right now, I’m very pleased. And we learned a lot in the Ridge loss."
   "This year, our team has our closest bond inside and outside," Fox added. "We went to Ireland this summer. We all see each other all the time. We hang out all the time. That always helps you on the court. We’re all happy to be playing with each other. It’s a very positive experience all being on the team."
   MHS will look to improve to 5-1 when it faces Highland Park on Monday. It’s a team the Cougars are quite familiar with after playing them in tune-up games before the state tournament in each of the past two seasons.
   "We’ve lost to them two years in a row," Fox said. "It’s a step. It’ll show we can overcome adversity. We’ve lost two years in a row. It’ll show we can look past to the two losses. Hopefully we’ll be able to win."
   From there, it’s time for the Cougars to shift focus to the second C, the conference. MHS, which faces Warren Hills on Wednesday, goes deeper into its Skyland Conference Delaware East Division starting next Friday.
   "I think we’re happy," Fox said. "I also think we should have beaten Ridge. But I’m glad we lost in the second game, not in the county or late in the season. We can learn from it now."
   And two of Montgomery’s C’s are still alive with one taken care of in the Gene Haley Tournament win.