By: Sean Moylan
Something good was "cooking" in the Florence Township Memorial High School girls’ varsity basketball squad’s 39-30 home win over Palmyra this past Tuesday nightand that something (and someone) was Anna Cook.
"Anna Cook had her first start of her varsity career and she had several rebounds and a couple of blocks (not to mention a game-high 10 points)," said Florence head coach Vince Cipriano.
"She’s a very smart young lady and every day in practice she works hard."
Cook was not the only Flash to play well. Stephanie Muni did a great job of cleaning the glass and she too blocked some shots and tallied five points.
The Flashes would have probably won in a blowout had their shooting not been a bit off.
"We did a lot of things well as far as getting into position to get our shots," said Cipriano.
Unfortunately, the easy shots weren’t falling for the Flashes.
"We got to the foul line tonight (Tuesday) and we missed a lot of foul shots," Cipriano added.
One player who did make her free throws was Lauren Jacobsen, who went 6-for-8 from the line while scoring eight points. Of course, because the Flashes played great "D", 39 points was plenty enough to win.
Cipriano felt Caitlin Fitzpatrick (seven points) and Brittany Spence (four points) played well on both end of the court.
Carly Blanton scored three points for the Flashes while Stefanie Borota scored a field goal.
And as far as Cipriano is concerned there can never be too many Cooks in Florence’s kitchen.
After beating the host team in its tournament opener, Florence lost a 58-32 decision to Irvington, a Group IV school in last Thursday’s championship game of the Milburn Tournament.
"Irvington was a well-coached super-athletic team," said Cipriano, who appreciates well-played basketball.
"Their coachhe had them playing like they invented the 1-3-1.
Nonetheless, the Flashes still managed to display that old "Florence heart," when after falling behind 18-3 in the opening quarter, they battled and battled to stay in the game.
Fitzpatrick led the Flashes in scoring with 10 points. But the whole team played solid basketball after the first quarter.
Florence (4-2) is scheduled to host Moorestown Friends on Friday and New Egypt on Tuesday.
BRHS
The Bordentown Regional High School girls’ varsity basketball team lost some of its usual offensive spark in a 35-25 loss to Nottingham in the finals of the J. Michael Tucker Tournament last Thursday evening.
"We relied on the jump shot too much," said Bordentown Coach Rob Shappell. "It was almost like a Doctor Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde situation. It (Bordentown) was a different team than the one that played against Pemberton and Lawrence."
In those contest the Scotties has attacked the basket on offense. The Northstars’ Patricia Foley (22 points, 15 rebounds) made that quite difficult on Thursday, however.
"She (Foley) was aggressive offensively and defensively," said Shappell.
Bordentown, though, did get some strong performance. Jillian Phillips tallied eight points and she made the all-tournament team. Moreover, Latoya Taylor and Taryn Lynch chipped in six points apiece while Lauren Nucera and Meghan McDonald each had a field goal and Rosie Fedak made a foul shot.
Defensively, Bordentown held Nottingham to just five first-quarter points. The only problem was that the Scotties only scored two in the meantime. Bordentown mounted a comeback attempt in the final quarter (which the Scotties took 10-7) but it was too late. Nonetheless, Bordentown’s extraordinary defensive effort did not go unnoticed by their head coach.
"As far as team-defense is concerned, you can’t really complain about giving up just 35 points," noted Shappell.
"I think they were upset they didn’t win (the tournament), but we’ve still got almost a full season to go."
To reach the finals, Bordentown had pounded Pemberton.
A quirk in their scheduled has the Scotties playing their next 4 games on the road. Bordentown (2-2) is scheduled at Lindenwold on Friday, at Allentown on Saturday and at Burlington City on Tuesday. When they’re "on" this team can win anywhere.
NBC
The Northern Burlington County Regional High School girls’ varsity basketball squad is young, so we may see a few games like last Tuesday’s 40-35 home loss to Moorestown.
However, even in that defeat, the inner fire and desire of some of the Greyhounds’ younger players was quite evident.
Sophomore forward Kylie Walton was sick and yet she battle through her illness to score a team-high 10 points.
"She (Walton) played a tough game," remarked Terry Jennings, NBC’s head coach.
The Greyhounds fell behind 25-11 at the half, yet they never gave up.
"We forgot to come out and play in the second quarter," noted Jennings. "But in the second half we came out with pride and intensity."
Moorestown outscored NBC 16-3 in the second quarter.
Kelly Walsh scored all nine of her points in the second half to lead NBC’s comeback charge.
"She (Walsh) hit a couple of key 3’s," added Jennings, whose club outscored Moorestown 10-4 in the third quarter.
Meanwhile, Andea Alford scored eight points, Arielle Alford had six and Lindsay Tewes had two in a losing cause.
On December 29, the Hun School topped NBC, 48-21, in the finals of the Eastern State Christmas Invitational Tournament at McCorristin High School.
The Hun School was undefeated at the time of the victory. Walton led the Greyhounds with eight points.
Andea Alford (four points), Walsh (three points), Arielle Alford (one point), Melina Rivera (two points) and Jess Byrne (one point) also scored for NBC. The Greyhounds played some good defense in both games. The Greyhounds had previously beaten the host team to qualify for the championship game of the ESCIT.
NBC (2-3) is scheduled at Shawnee on Saturday. Then on Tuesday night NBC is scheduled to host Rancocas Valley.

