South basketball teams have tough season openers

By John E. Powers, Sports Writer
   The South Hunterdon Regional High School boys and girls basketball teams had difficult season openers against strong clubs from Mercer County.
   The results were predictable.
   Allentown beat the South Hunterdon girls 40-28 Saturday night in Lambertville while Princeton Day School beat the boys 74-50 Monday afternoon in Mercer County.
   Eagles coach Sam Haimann (girls) and Jason Miller (boys) made their debuts.
   Both opponents were unbeaten. Allentown is 2-0; Princeton Day School is 5-0.
   ”It wasn’t the way we hoped to start the season,” Miller said. “But it was kind of tough playing a team that had already played so many games.”
   Ryan Marriott led South Hunterdon with 15 points while Dan Musselman had 10.
   South Hunterdon is scheduled to play host to Bound Brook Friday night.
   ”We need to be more patient,” Miller said. “We tried to force passes or bad shots. We need to be more patient offensively. They hurt us on our transition defense. They pushed it a few times, and they caught us not getting back, and they had some easy lay-ups. They shot the ball very well.
   ”We got into foul trouble early. They made 15 free throws off 1-and-1 situations, and we were down by 16 at half. That’s tough to overcome, and it forced us to go to our bench earlier than I’d like.”
   Allentown had opened its season Friday night by beating West Windsor Plainsboro North 47-37.
   ”I had an indication last week of how big a challenge Allentown would be for us,” Haimann said. “The team was around .500 last year, and they had four starters back, and then they open the season by beating West Windsor North, a Group IV school. I knew it would be a major challenge for us when I saw them on film. They were pretty impressive with the stuff they were doing. They are really well coached.”
   But South Hunterdon hung in.
   ”We’re going to outwork people,” Haimann said. “Our work ethic was great. Our kids gave it everything they had for 32 minutes, right until the end. They were jumping and running until the very end. I thought we were right there. We just didn’t do enough of the little things to win the game.”
   The Eagles trailed 20-13 at half. South, looking to improve dramatically from last year’s 4-18 record, worked the ball inside to junior forward Brittany Ennis and sophomore forward K.K. Campbell. Ennis finished with nine points. Junior guard Stephanie Perovich, who transferred from Immaculata, finished with four points and scored South’s first bucket of the year.
   ”We missed a ton of lay-ups,” Haimann said. “But I thought we ran our offensive sets pretty well, and we moved the ball. We reacted to their different looks. We just need to get a little more confidence.”
   The Eagles got a surprise last week when junior center Corrine Hart was cleared to play after having suffered from a sports hernia. She played for six minutes in the first half, but got into foul trouble early and had to sit.
   ”She gave us some good minutes,” Haimann said.
   South Hunterdon was scheduled to have a busy week. It was to play Mount St. Mary Tuesday in a Skyland Conference opener at home, a non-conference home game with Princeton Day Thursday, then play at divisional rival Bound Brook Friday.
   ”Mount St. Mary will be playing with a certain degree of confidence since they won their first game (last Friday against Bernards),” Haimann said. “That will be another major test for us. But I think we have the work ethic. The kids really want to improve.”