MVP Rash, Coheleach lead charge
By: Rudy Brandl
The Hillsborough High girls might want to start playing all of their basketball games in the West Windsor-Plainsboro area.
For the second consecutive year, all three Hillsborough teams swept through their brackets and won titles in the War of the Worlds Holiday Tournament. In two years of competition at the tourney, the HHS freshman, jayvee and varsity teams have a combined record of 18-0.
The holiday sweep was just what the HHS varsity girls needed. They were coming off a two-game losing streak and sporting a sub-.500 record for the first time in years.
"We needed to have a good tournament this year because of what happened before," Hillsborough head coach Jim Reese said. "When you lose two in a row, a certain amount of panic and desperation sets in. It was good that we were able to hang in there and win all three games."
All three games were reasonably close, despite somewhat lopsided final scores in the first round win over Somerville (62-48) and championship victory over Bishop Ahr (54-33). The Lady Raiders showed some poise under pressure in holding off East Brunswick in a 59-56 semifinal thriller.
Hillsborough hit six straight free throws under pressure in the final 1:40 to beat the Bears, who had erased a 14-point deficit with some explosive 3-point shooting. Ashley Coheleach hit a pair of free throws to put the Lady Raiders back up by a point and Ebony Jones made two more to bump the lead to three. After EBHS scored at the other end, Jones answered with two more clutch foul shots.
The game ended in dramatic fashion when the Bears just missed two threes in the final four seconds. After watching East Brunswick hit four bombs in the early part of the quarter, Reese thought that last one was going through the net.
"I thought it was in," Reese said. "What a barrage of threes. We made some defensive mistakes, but they still have to hit the shots."
The Lady Raiders capped their tournament run with another win over a team that came in with a 4-0 record. HHS was clinging to a five-point lead after three quarters but broke the game wide open with a 19-3 spurt in the fourth. Nine different players scored for the champs.
"We just had a little burst," Reese said. "We didn’t really play that well and we were sloppy with the ball in the first three quarters, but we had one good stretch and that was it."
Tournament MVP Christine Rash led the team with 16 points. Fellow senior forward Coheleach came up very big in the first two games with 15 and 17 points, respectively. She was named to the All-Tournament team.
"They were the two most consistent players," Reese said. "Christine was consistent for all three games and Ashley was very good in the first two games. They rebounded better, but East Brunswick and Bishop Ahr weren’t big. They’re more perimeter teams, so we’ll see how things go against a bigger team."
Several players contributed to the team’s tournament surge. Jones joined Coheleach with 15 points in the victory over Somerville. Sophomore Kelsey Kutch posted 16 points and seven rebounds to ignite the Lady Raiders against East Brunswick. Junior point guard Ali DeLuca fired in 13 points in the championship victory over Bishop Ahr.
While Reese still isn’t satisfied with the team’s defensive play, he was impressed by the shooting statistics from the tournament. The HHS girls hit almost 50 percent of their shots from the field in all three games and connected on 83 percent from the line vs. Somerville and made 93 percent of their free throws against East Brunswick.
"We shot very well in the tournament overall," Reese said. "We still have to improve defensively. We shot the lights out in the first half against Somerville but we were only leading by six. Our margin of error isn’t as great because we have a lot of team defensive breakdowns. It’s a work in progress."
Hillsborough played without Jones in both losses and her return certainly helped the defense. North Hunterdon overwhelmed Hillsborough with swarming pressure and New Brunswick caught a few breaks in the final minute of a very sloppy game that saw the teams combine for 70 turnovers.
Winning the holiday tournament made everyone in the program feel much better heading into the New Year. The Lady Raiders were scheduled to return home for the first time since opening night Tuesday vs. Hunterdon Central. The team begins its Delaware East Division schedule tonight back on the road at Watchung Hills.
"They were so down a week or so ago after losing two games," Reese said. "Winning three games in a row has to help."

