Hopewell Valley girls basketball
By: John E. Powers
Hopewell Valley Central High School first-year girls basketball coach Jeff Losch is confident his Lady Bulldogs eventually will gel into the kind of team he envisions. It’s simply that a new system requires a little more time and the fact the Lady Bulldogs are facing a tough early-season schedule has to come into consideration when evaluating performance.
Hopewell opened the season 1-2, losing to West Windsor-Plainsboro North (2-0) Friday, beating Ridge (1-2) Saturday 44-38, and then losing a 60-35 decision to Steinert (2-0) Tuesday night.
North, now in the Colonial Valley Conference Valley Division, won the Patriot Division last year. Ridge has a new head coach itself, and Steinert has outstanding sophomore guard Arielle Collins. Collins had 21 points to spark the Colonial Division’s Spartans, who ran out to a 35-21 halftime lead.
"We face-guarded her and tried to do everything we could, but she could have done just about anything she wanted," said Losch, who replaced John McGinley as HoVal coach. "She looked like a Division 1 player to me. I think she had 21 on us in the first half.
"They are a solid team they start four sophomores, and they are athletic," Losch added. "They scored a lot of their points in transition."
Junior guard Suzy Noyes led Hopewell with a game-high 22 points, including three 3-pointers. Noyes had 21 in the win against Ridge, and 11 in Friday night’s game. Sophomore forward Ali Newman, who had 10 points in the Ridge game, netted seven against Steinert.
"Suzy has a lot of experience, and Ali is only a sophomore," Losch said. "Suzy exerted a lot of energy scoring those points, and she shouldn’t have to do that. It’s not her fault. We need to help her out. We need a ball distributor, and for somebody to step up with Suzy and Ali to be a scorer."
Hopewell won at Ridge despite being outscored 14-4 in the fourth quarter. Noyes and Newman combined for 31 of the 44 points. Noyes hit for three 3-pointers. The two scored 29 of the team’s 35 points against Steinert.
"There’s a lot of transition going on," Losch said.
The Lady Bulldogs are scheduled to play host to Montgomery today (Thursday) and then get back to play in the John Molinelli Memorial Tournament on Dec. 28 and 29. The Montgomery match-up should be an interesting one. Losch, who taught at Montgomery for three years, was an assistant boys coach for the Cougars. Paul Popadiuk, in his eighth year as head coach of the Cougars, has been a helpful rival, Losch said.
Montgomery, 2-0, beat Ridge 48-46 Tuesday night, so its game with Hopewell Valley figures to be tight.
"When I got the job over the summer, Paul met with me at a diner and I was able to pick his brain for two or three hours," Losch said. "He’s not only been helpful to me, but also when John was here he would help him out with film, that kind of thing."

