Egan helps North overcome hurdles
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Injuries and inexperienced have kept the West Windsor-Plainsboro High North girls’ basketball team from getting off to a better start.
But a win like Friday night’s 46-45 triumph over Lawrence helps to ease some of the pain.
”We needed the win,” said senior Erin Egan, whose eight points included the game-winning shot with just seven seconds left. “We need to bring our confidence level up and be back to the beginning to the team that beat Allentown. I think that is where we have to be. It’s been tough. We’ve had a lot of sick people and a lot of injuries, including myself. I missed the last couple days with an injury to my foot.”
The win was the fourth of the season for the Knights, who lost to Montgomery, 50-24, on Saturday and are now 4-7 on the season. It’s been a season of growing for a team that lost three prominent players from a year ago, and also has some young players in key roles this year.
”Kathy Ruiz, who was at the game tonight watching, she’s the leading scorer in our school’s history, so that was a tough loss,” said Egan, who played through her foot injury in the win over Lawrence. “All three of them were tough. Danielle (Parisi) was the best defensive player. Megan (Pisani) had an amazing shot. And Kathy was the leading scorer. They were tough to lose, but we’re not doing as bad as everyone expected after we lost them.
”But I think since they graduated we’re more of a centralized team instead of relying on one person. We’re more balanced.”
The offense was balanced on Friday, as Blair Moore led the way with 11 points. Egan and Lexie Forsell chipped in with eight points apiece.
”Myself, Blair and Deeksha (Taneja), we had to step it up and take charge more,” Egan said. “Even the juniors and underclassmen are doing their part. I think it is great that everyone is doing their part and contributing to the team.”
The Knights will need to go on a successful run over the next two weeks in order to qualify for the state tournament. The troubles for the Knights have come on the offensive end, where they’ve managed to score 45 or more points just four times — all of which resulted in wins.
”We have some trouble scoring,” North coach Bob Boyce said. “But we play good defense and that keeps us in the game and gives us a chance to win. We haven’t been able to replace the points Ruiz scored. We haven’t been able to replace the outside shooting of Pisani. And we haven’t been able to replace Parisi’s defensive tenacity.
”Most of the time we play hard. Our defensive tenacity is pretty good. We get out on teams pretty good. We get a lot of steals. That takes us far but we just have a lot of trouble scoring.”
Egan has been one of the steady leaders for the Knights. She is averaging just under 10 points a game and brings the young team needed leadership.
”She’s a three-year varsity starter,” Boyce said. “She’s an old school, hard-nosed kid. You don’t get too many of those anymore. She’s honest, dedicated, and a great leader if they would listen to her. We have a group of juniors and we also rely on a couple of freshmen. So we’re pretty young. But they’re learning and getting better.”

