By: Carolyn M. Hartko
Last year marked a huge turn-around for the South Brunswick High School girls’ basketball program. Not only did the Lady Vikings flip the win-loss numbers from the previous winter, but they posted their best overall record since moving up into the Red Division.
This season, South proved the reversal of fortune was no fluke. The Vikings finished 16-6, and let the conference know that they are now one of the top teams on the playground.
South Brunswick got an early-season boost by winning their own Holiday Tournament in December, the first time the home team took the top prize. And they had to beat Jefferson, a top-20 state ranked team at the time, in the finals to get the job done. The Vikings took pride in the fact that they beat Piscataway twice during the regular season, and avenged an early season loss to East Brunswick, another Red Division foe. The only Red team that South lost to twice in division play was Red Division Champion J.P. Stevens.
In post-season play, South Brunswick earned first-round ‘byes in both the Greater Middlesex Conference and NJSIAA Group IV tournaments.
"We actually got the highest seed in the county tournament since I can remember the three seed," Viking head coach Jaymee Boehmer said.
Part of the success can be attributed to the great team spirit the Vikings had this winter.
"For the first year since I’ve been here, we’ve come along as a team, and there was no drama," Jessie Harbison, one of the team’s three senior captains, said. "We all got along real well."
Harbison will attend the University of Rhode Island next year. She’ll be majoring in Human Science, leading to an eventual career in physical therapy or sports medicine. Her varsity basketball career is over, but she may play intramural ball in college.
Harbison was the only senior who actually played the entire season as the other two girls were on the injured list. Sam Littlejohn saw a little time on the court, but Noelle Johnson was sidelined with a torn meniscus in her right knee. Littlejohn, a letterman in high school, will play soccer at Wellsley College in Massachusetts next year where she’s enrolled in a pre-med program. She’ll be suiting up for softball in a few weeks, but that doesn’t help the disappointment of missing most of her senior year on the basketball court.
"It was pretty disappointing, but I was still with the team all the time," Littlejohn said. "I was with the girls, and that’s what makes it fun. So, it was disappointing that I couldn’t play, but it wasn’t as horrible as it could have been."
Johnson also hopes to salvage the spring season. In her case, she throws shot, discus and javelin with the track team. She is hoping to attend the University of North Carolina at Greensboro for a major in TV and Radio Broadcasting. Depending on the resolution of her knee problem, Johnson may try to walk-on in both basketball and track in college.
"They’re just team players," Boehmer said of her three seniors. "This year was just so great because the kids really cared about each other. I think that carried us a long way. And I think that we’ll see those seniors next year, watching us. They really liked playing basketball, and I liked them playing for me."
With two seniors injured, younger players got more experience. The three starters who led the team in scoring will be back next year, and two of them will be stepping into leadership roles. Junior guard Jess Mastronardi averaged 15 points per game, and she also had the second most steals on the squad. Mastronardi received the team’s MVP award, and she was South’s only representative on the all-Red Division team, and the all-GMC team. The latter is a big honor for a basketball player, since there are only eight players picked for the all-conference team. Mastronardi is the first Viking to get that award since South Brunswick moved to the Red Division.
Junior center Janelle Payne was the team’s top rebounder (10.5 ppg) and averaged 10.5 points while shooting a team-high 72 percent from the foul line. Payne was named the team’s Best Offensive Player.
The third member of South’s triple-threat offense was freshman point guard Janay Barnett. What the youngster lacked in finesse, she made up for with enthusiasm. Barnett led the team in steals and assists, and she averaged 8.7 ppg. Barnett received the team’s Best Defensive Player award.
As a team, South Brunswick averaged 60 points and allowed 50. Those are the best figures since Boehmer took over eight years ago. In addition to the three players already mentioned, junior forward Alicia Langone and junior center Sam Rene could also put up double digits on a good day. Rene’s stats would have been better if she hadn’t missed the second half of the season with an injury. She was also good off the boards. Langone and Harbison earned the team’s Coaches’ Award.
Another player who would have gotten more court time if she hadn’t been injured was sophomore guard Indira Morton. Morton could be counted on to surprise the opposition with her rebounding ability when she came off the bench. Rounding out the varsity were junior guards Stephanie Zucker and Jackie Nimon, and freshman swing player Jordan Confessore.
On lower rung of the program, assistant coach Pam Szabo led the Viking JV squad to an 18-2 finish. They reached the finals of the JV tournament for the first time, and missed the trophy by a few points.
