Lady Raiders not defending, rebounding

Weaknesses exposed in loss to Central

By: Rudy Brandl
   Hillsborough High girls’ head basketball coach Jim Reese can’t understand why his team hasn’t been dominating the boards. The Lady Raiders have all kinds of size and experience up front and their five starters average 5-9 in height.
   That’s what makes games like last week’s 55-51 home loss to Hunterdon Central so frustrating for the veteran HHS coach. He’s been annoyed enough by his club’s defensive shortcomings. Watching the Lady Raiders get controlled on the glass again made Reese downright angry.
   "It’s driving me crazy, I admit it," Reese said afterward. "I’m frustrated. I’m at a loss. We don’t defend and we’re not rebounding. We just don’t do what we’re supposed to do."
   Reese has always prided himself on being a defensive coach. His teams have been successful mostly because they know how to defend, press and rebound. The Lady Raiders have won division and county championships with less talented offensive players during Reese’s tenure. It’s unlikely that a poor defensive unit will produce similar success.
   "I’ve never had a team like this before," he said. "I’ve had bad offensive teams. I know how to deal with that."
   The HHS girls have played well enough offensively to hang around and make games interesting. They’ve only been blown out once — Dec. 22 at North Hunterdon. The Lady Raiders won all three holiday tournament games with a spurt or two. New Brunswick and Central defeated Hillsborough in games that were decided in the final minute.
   Instead of dwelling on what happened in the final minute, Reese would rather try to fix the problems that created the deficit in the first place. He doesn’t believe it’s proper to point out one missed shot or turnover in the final possession such as the pass out of bounds with 10 seconds left that kept the Lady Raiders from getting a shot to tie the score. If the HHS girls were doing a better job defensively and on the boards throughout the entire game, other mistakes wouldn’t be magnified.
   "I thought we’d get a better shot just pushing the ball up," Reese said. "If I call timeout, she (Hunterdon Central head coach Amy Cooke) changes her defense and we might have trouble getting the ball in. I thought we’d get a better shot in transition and we didn’t."
   "It was a mix-up on me," explained Ebony Jones, who was the target of Ali DeLuca’s pass that bounced into the Hillsborough bench. "I should’ve been looking for the ball. I was trying to cut down and set a screen."
   Central iced the victory with a pair of free throws and Christine Rash’s jumper from the left wing was off the mark as the buzzer sounded.
   The Lady Raiders trailed Central ever since the early stages of the second quarter. HHS tied the game four times but never regained the lead. The home team seemed to have momentum entering the fourth quarter after Heather Neumann’s bomb from the top of the key capped an 8-0 spurt that tied the score at 38-38.
   "I thought Heather’s three was going to change everything and give us the momentum," said Jones, who had a solid game with 11 points. "We didn’t keep it up."
   Central opened the final quarter with two inside baskets and never relinquished the lead. Marissa Manzo, who led the visitors with 15 points, put Central up with a short jumper and Miriam Marcis added a transition layup in the first minute of the fourth quarter.
   Hillsborough cut the deficit to two when DeLuca stopped and popped a short jumper in transition. DeLuca netted six of her game-high 16 points in the fourth quarter and Rash scored five of her 10 but it wasn’t enough.
   Central’s key spurt came midway through the fourth quarter on two straight 3-point plays. Steph Tully threw in a wild shot and connected on the free throw and Marcis drained a three from the left wing after the Red Devils had collected three offensive rebounds to maintain possession.
   "It’s nothing different than we’ve seen all year," Reese said. "It just gets exposed when we play a better team. We talk about it again and again but it doesn’t seem to be getting any better."
   The Lady Raiders returned to the court two nights later and showed moderate improvement to post a 54-47 victory on the road at Watchung Hills. Rash and fellow post player Ashley Coheleach led the way in points and rebounding, a good sign for Reese’s team. Rash led all scorers with 17 points and Coheleach fired in 14. Add in Kelsey Kutch’s eight and the HHS starting front court combined for 39 points.
   "We got a bunch of offensive rebounds," Reese said. "That had been plaguing us. Sometimes, it even came on the third shot."
   Hillsborough also did a better job defensively. Watchung was hot early in the game and maintained a four-point lead at the break. HHS started its surge late in the third quarter and carried it through the rest of the game.
   "The kids played hard and I saw improvement," Reese said. "Our defense got stronger as the game went on and we defended well down the stretch."
   The Lady Raiders won their Delaware East opener and were slated to host Franklin and Montgomery in divisional play this week.