Tang is hard guard to keep down

Injured senior helps North hoops advance in MCT

By: Justin Feil
   For almost two weeks, Liz Tang has been playing with a sore dominant hand.
   It has slowed the West Windsor-Plainsboro North point guard, but it won’t keep her off the court for the rest of the Mercer County and Central Jersey Group III tournaments.
   "It’s my last year and I’m probably not playing next year," said the Knights senior. "Maybe I’ll play intramural or club. I hurt it at Lawrence. After this one layup, I fell really hard on my hand. I felt pain shoot up arm so they pulled me out and rested me the rest of that game. A couple games before then, I’d fallen on it. It just got worse."
   Tang continues to play with the hand heavily wrapped after helping the Knights advance to the MCT quarterfinals with a 57-30 win over Allentown on Monday. WW-P North was scheduled to play Trenton on Thursday, and could face Steinert or Pennington today in the MCT. The Knights, who are banged up with injuries to Kathy Ruiz and Megan Pisani, can’t imagine doing so without Tang, even if she isn’t 100 percent.
   "She makes a big difference," said Knights head coach Bob Boyce, whose team got 22 points from Ruiz and a season-high 10 from Danielle Parisi to improve to 12-8. "She’s still better than 90 percent of the point guards I’ve seen."
   Also advancing in the MCT was West Windsor-Plainsboro South. Becky Peters had 14 points and Tia Williams and Tory Sharpless had 13 points apiece in a 54-34 win over Lawrence on Monday. Princeton High School dropped a 59-46 decision to Pennington despite 18 points from Kelly Curtis.
   In the boys’ tournament, only WW-P South picked up a first-round win. The Pirates topped Lawrence, 52-40, behind 15 points from Derek Lester. WW-P North dropped a 78-47 decision to Hamilton, while Princeton lost to Notre Dame, 60-36. The MCT was scheduled to continue Thursday with the quarterfinals and tonight with the semifinals.
   "We started off a little slow," Tang said of the Knights. "We’ve been having a little trouble with that. We don’t come out with the intensity we had at the beginning of the season. We started to pick it up by the second half. We started to pull away and won by 20."
   It was more of a spread than the Knights had in their first regular-season meeting with Allentown, a game that wasn’t decided until the fourth quarter. This time, WW-P North pulled away early in the second half. With Tang, who scored five points, slowed by her injury, others had to step up the pace.
   "Kathy decided to pick it up," Boyce said. "She had half her points in the fourth quarter. I think she had 17 of her 22 in the second half. Our pressure wore them down. They were getting a little tired. They did a nice job early against it. It was a good game for a half."
   The Knights were hoping to make their game against Trenton a close affair for longer than a half. Tang is expected to play a major role as someone who has been through her share of Trenton games.
   "They’re having an amazing season," Tang said. "I wouldn’t say it’s intimidating. It’s a lot of fun to go up against a great team. We have to come out with the same intensity we usually come out with. It’s a learning experience to play a team doing very well this year."
   Tang has picked up plenty of lessons in four years at the point for the Knights. It’s in some of those big games that her experience shows. It’s particularly useful as North prepares for the upcoming state tournament.
   "With my experience," Tang said, "it makes it a lot easier to go up against really good teams like Trenton. You don’t feel as intimidated. You know what’s coming. And we’re out there to have fun.
   "It’s been a lot of fun this year. We had a couple tough losses. There are some games we definitely should have won. We had a couple lapses and that hurt us a little bit. Overall, I’m enjoying my last season in high school."
   It is winding down though the competition is only getting better. In addition to Trenton and perhaps Pennington today, the Knights will take their rivals West Windsor-Plainsboro South as well as highly regarded Egg Harbor High in a tune up for the state tournament. WW-P North opens CJ III play as the No. 6 seed at No. 3 Hopewell Valley on Mar. 1.
   "Your reward for a tough fought, hard fought win is you get to play Trenton High," Boyce said. "We’ll see what happens. We have some tough games to finish the season. Hopefully that’ll prepare us for the state game at Hopewell. We don’t know who we play Friday, Steinert or Pennington. Then we play (WW-P) South and Egg Harbor.
   "It’s the old saying, what doesn’t kill you only makes you better. We played Rancocas Valley Saturday. Maybe you’re not going to win, but the next opponent seems like they’re playing in slow motion. When you play against Trenton, against big, fast teams, it helps you as long as you don’t get too beat up. It just makes you better. Hopefully the tough end of the season will have us ready to beat Hopewell. I thought we should have beat them. Hopefully we go over there and get a little revenge."
   Tang just hopes she doesn’t end up getting any more beat up in the preparations for the game. That seems a hard task for the hard-nosed hustler, whose .
   "It’s a continual thing," Tang said. "I’ve been falling on my hand a lot. It keeps getting bruised. It’s getting better but I’m always on the ground at some point in the game. I play through it so it doesn’t matter."
   It has helped that as much as her play as has been a constant, so has her role with the Knights. She broke into the WW-P North lineup at point guard and has continued to fine tune her skills.
   "My role has been pretty consistent," she said. "I’ve always been point guard. I run all our plays. I try to set everyone up. I haven’t been a big scorer in a few years."It’s made Boyce’s first year at the helm of the program a little easier. He knows he can rely on her steady play at the point.
   "She’s the leader on the floor," he said. "She does a nice job running our team."Tang has limited opportunities left to do so. She is looking for a similar run in the state tournament to last year’s, when the Knights reached the CJ III final.
   "We’re going to get after it against Hopewell," Tang said. "Playing Hopewell, that was a game we really should have won. We’re going to go out there and focus on what we have to do. It’s our chance to redeem ourselves.
   "Our returning players," she added, "they have experience playing in the state tournament. We know what to expect."
   This year, the state tournament is even more meaningful for Liz Tang. Those games will be her finals ones for the Knights. She may have to endure a little pain and bruising, but she’s not ready for high school basketball to end yet.
   "I want to make it last as long as possible," she said. "Maybe even to match our season we had last year. And I want to still have fun. It’s my last year."