GIRLS BASKETBALL
By: Mike Molaro
After the Hopewell Valley Central High School girl’s basketball squad saw its magical season end with a 59-28 home setback to Willingboro in last Saturday’s NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III semifinals, the reality set in that these Lady Bulldogs had played their final game together.
"The girls were visibly upset in the locker room," HoVal head coach Jeff Losch said after his third-seeded Lady Bulldogs fell to the seventh-seeded Chimeras. "Part of it was losing, but I really think a bigger part was that these girls knew that was that last time they would be together as a team. The really enjoyed each other. This group really bonded together. The loss to Willingboro was the finality that the season was over for the team. And we truly were a team."
HoVal (18-8) ended its campaign with a torrid run, winning 10 of its last 12 games and 14 of its final 17.
The Lady Bulldogs captured the Colonial Valley Conference Patriot Division and earned their first-ever berth in the Mercer County Tournament finals, knocking off 11th-seeded Hightstown (44-26), third-seeded West Windsor-Plainsboro South (44-32), and second-seeded Trenton Catholic Academy (36-30) en route to the MCT title game against top-seeded Trenton.After earning a first-round bye in the CJ III bracket, the Lady Bulldogs defeated sixth-seeded WW-P North, 52-36, in the sectional quarterfinals on March 1 before falling to Willingboro last Saturday.
Senior guard and co-captain Suzie Noyes led HoVal with 16 points and nine rebounds against the Chimeras while junior forward and co-captain Ali Newman added seven points and six rebounds.
Noyes ended her career as the fourth-leading scorer in Lady Bulldog history with 1,158 points behind 1977 graduate Val Ackerman (1,466 points), 1980 graduate Bernadette Powell (1,255), and 2001 graduate Kelly Cramp (1,169).
Willingboro (20-9) opened a 15-8 first-quarter lead and used its defensive pressure and pinpoint outside shooting to advance to Monday’s sectional championship game.
"Willingboro is a very deceptive seventh seed," added Losch. "Teams are seeded by records, and they had nine losses coming into the tournament. They beat the second seeded (Freehold Boro) in the quarterfinals. They lost to the best teams in the state. Willingboro is a very good team, right up there with Trenton and Trenton Academy.
"We knew going in that they had a great post player (Tiffany Crews, 16 points) and very good guards. One of our keys going into this game was not to turn the ball over and give them easy baskets. They got a lot of points off of turnovers. They started hitting their jump shots in the second half and that made it real difficult for us."
Noyes (game-high 18 points) and Newman (17) combined for 35 points in the triumph over North in the sectional quarterfinals. The Lady Bulldog co-captains each grabbed 11 rebounds. HoVal used a 16-6 first-quarter surge to break things open early against the Knights, whom they defeated 42-37 in the season opener.
"Going into this game, we wanted to be smart offensively," Losch said. "We wanted to protect the ball and show composure. Our girls did a great job of that. North tries to wear you down and throws different presses at you. We really handled their press well and the girls handled the pressure extremely well."
HoVal, 10-14 a year ago, used an opportunistic offense mixed with an aggressive defense to bring home one of the best seasons in school history. The Lady Bulldogs did it with the pride and class they exhibited from the first day of practice.
"We wanted to keep things in perspective all season," added Losch. "We did a lot of little things this year that may have gone unnoticed. We beat Pennington, and that was huge for us. We beat the second and third seeds in the MCT. We were in every game this year except for the two Trenton losses and the Willingboro game. We tried to do the best we could to have the girls realize what they did along the way. What we accomplished probably won’t sink in until we are farther away from the season."
Led by their group of seven National Honor Society seniorsguards Noyes, Katie Kolombatovich, and Jessie Borden and forwards Brittany Bartlett, Eileen Carroll, Kristin Hageman, and Katie Zsenakthe Lady Bulldogs defied the odds every step of the way.HoVal epitomized the team concept and proved that the sums of the parts are greater than the whole.
"The dynamic of this group is that the girls who didn’t get as much playing time are just as important as the girls who do play," Losch said. "The girls accepted their roles and did things that didn’t show up on the scoreboard or on the stat sheet. They boxed out and played great defense. Things like that made it possible for us to get our offense going and score points. All 19 girls bought into the system and did their job. That was the key to our success. It was everyone believing in each other and themselves to make it happen. I couldn’t be more proud of these girls."
The Lady Bulldogs were 4-5 at one point in the season but never pointed fingers or pushed the panic button. They stuck together and took their fans on one of the most memorable rides in HoVal history.
"In those five losses (Steinert, WW-P South, Pennington, Hunterdon Central, and Montgomery), we were in those games all the way. Those teams beat us by 20 points last year, so the girls knew even in defeat they could play with those teams. We never lost confidence and never gave up."
From the first day of practice, these Lady Bulldogs wouldn’t be denied. And they did it all the while with class and pride.
It doesn’t get much better than that.

