GIRLS BASKETBALL
By Tim Falls, Sports Editor
The message has changed for the Lawrence High School girls basketball team.
Going into the fourth quarter in past seasons, coach Gregg Zenerovitz has stressed playing hard until the end.
Now the team is talking about winning.
Lawrence (4-5) defeated Stuart, 66-46, on Monday and rallied to put pressure on West Windsor-Plainsboro North in a 49-38 loss on Friday.
”We’re starting to become competitive,” said Zenerovitz. “Going into the fourth quarter, we’re talking about winning games instead of playing hard to the final buzzer.”
The Cardinals have had some tough times this season, but seem to be making progress.
”Over the last two weeks, since the (Molinelli) Holiday Tournament,” said Zenerovitz, “we’ve gone back to basics. The goal was to improve on what we needed to work on.”
A win over Allentown last Tuesday and rallying against the Knights, even though the Cardinals fell short, shows some of the headway the team has made.
”We’re heading in the right direction,” said Zenerovitz. “I was concerned after the Christmas break, but we’ve gone back to basics, and, starting with the Hopewell game, we’ve done a lot of good things.
Ashley Russo led Lawrence’s scoring with 20 points against Stuart. The Cardinal junior also had 10 rebounds, five assists and three steals.
Junior Zainabu Sillah and senior Leronda Aviles each had 15 points and 11 rebounds, while Sillah had four steals.
”Overall, I was pleased with how we played,” said Zenerovitz. “The had beaten us the last few years when we played them away. We’re playing pretty well at home.”
Junior Lauri Regan scored eight points, junior Lauren Raymond had four points and senior Brittany Shropshire and junior Abby Seay had two points each.
While WW-P North defeated Lawrence, 49-36, on Friday, the Cardinals came back from a 19-8 first-quarter deficit.
”North jumped on us,” said Zenerovitz. “We cut it to four going into the fourth quarter, but couldn’t put the ball in the basket in the fourth quarter.”
The Knights out shot Lawrence, 11-2, in the fourth quarter.
Russo scored 12 points against the Knights, Raymond scored seven points, Sillah had six points, Aviles and Jen Korngut had four points and Shropshire scored three points.
”North is a team the last couple of years we haven’t been that competitive with,” said Zenerovitz. “We did a lot of things well in that game. We built on what we did against Allentown.”
Trailing just four points going into the fourth quarter, Zenerovitz could talk to his players about strategies for winning the game, rather than just fighting the good fight and giving their all out on the court.
Zenerovitz credits the help of assistant coaches Jamie Land and Dana Verdi.
”Those two coaches deserve a lot of credit for our improvement,” said Zenerovitz. “They’ve been working just as much as I have.”
While there are starting to be more and more games when Zenerovitz can talk to his team about how to win, there are still a few when he must preach about hustling and playing with heart. Like when the Cardinals face teams like Trenton.
Lawrence lost to Trenton, 81-16, on Tuesday. The Tornadoes limited Lawrence’s scoring while the Trenton’s Leola Spotwoon put up 14 points to reach 1,000 career points. Regan and Shropshire scored four points to lead the Cardinal’s meager offense.
Lawrence is scheduled to play Robbinsville on Friday and then play Hamilton on Tuesday.