Hopewell Valley girls basketball
By: John E. Powers
Throughout the season, the Hopewell Valley Central High School girls basketball team has eagerly waited the return of its leader, senior guard Kristy Camp. But now it appears the Lady Bulldogs will have to go on without her.
Cramp, who suffered a broken right hand in October, probably will not return, leaving the Lady Bulldogs and their head coach, John McGinley, to plan without her.
"We thought that she was coming back in about a week or two, but the doctors have told her that it will probably be another three or four weeks, which means there’s a chance she won’t be coming back at all," McGinley said. "We’re going to have the attitude that she’s not coming back."
The Lady Bulldogs, 6-5, went 2-1 during the week, beating Hightstown 36-22 and Lawrence 46-29 and losing to Moorestown 29-25. McGinley said he has been extremely pleased with the way his club has played defense.
In Tuesday night’s win against Hightstown, the Lady Bulldogs built a 17-7 first-quarter lead. Suzy Noyes had 15 points, and Emily Newport added 11.
"For us, a win is a win, but I thought we played well," McGinley said. "To have given up just 22 points is a key. We scored enough. The big thing now is that we’re focusing on defense, and it’s paying off. We have been keeping teams down and that’s great. Hightstown was really playing the clock. They were really taking their time running their offense."
The win over Lawrence featured nine points from Newport and seven from Jhonna Tirpak. Tirpak had six in the loss to Moorestown.
"We were up at the half, but got cold in the second half," McGinley said. "Suzy got into foul trouble Saturday. When she was in the game we were doing well, but she went out and we struggled."
McGinley has been using a longer bench. Freshman forward Ali Newman and sophomore center Eileen Carroll have started to contribute.
"Little by little, we’re getting more contributions," McGinley said. "We have had to adjust a little bit and be more selective on offense. But the key is to play good defense. We’re starting to run a little bit. I envisioned a different way of playing a little more up tempo but we’re not there yet. We don’t have that ability. We’ve been trapping and doing some full pressure, and now we have to start scoring off our opportunities that come off turnovers."
The state playoff cutoff date is Feb. 5. The Lady Bulldogs have seven games until then. Up this week are 8-1 Nottingham and 10-1 Hun.
"It’ll be a couple of tough games," McGinley said. "We have to get three of the next seven to make it."

