Eagle girls seeking to regain A North basketball crown

BY WAYNE WITKOWSKI
Correspondent

 Middletown South Middletown South Middletown High School South girls basketball coach Tom Brennan said during the summer that Jackie Dluhi is the central to the team’s success this season, and so far in this early part of the campaign, she has lived up to the hype.

“We’ll go as she goes,” said Brennan at the time. His team is off to a 2-0 start and looks to regain the Shore Conference A North Division title after finishing as runner-up to Howell in a 15-8 campaign last season.

Dluhi, a 5-9 swing player, hit a pair of double-doubles in the first two games. She scored 12 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in the latest 48-36 victory on Dec. 19 over Shore Conference A North rival Howell, sealed by a 15-2 fourth quarter. Middletown South earlier on Dec. 16 beat nonconference foe Brick Memorial, 45-27.

“She’s meeting expectations for us right now,” said coach Tom Brennan as his team headed into the Christmas break.

Guard Kiera Gannon, who started last season with fellow guard Carissa Gray as sophomores, scored 13 points and had four steals against Howell. Those three players, all team captains, are integral for the Eagles as they move up from NJSIAA Group III to Group IV status this season.

They’ll look to fill in the gaps for graduated Meghan McGuinness, who is at Niagara, and Kelly Haspel, who recently broke into the starting lineup at 7-2 Ramapo where she averages seven points a game. Haspel’s younger sister, sophomore Brianna, is a 5-5 guard who can play defense but also has shown a deft shooting touch.

“If she’s on the floor late in the game, it’ll be with her defense,” Brennan said.

The coach calls his young team “a work in progress. The junior class has tons of varsity experience. The seniors will figure out where they can help us out, and the sophomores and freshmen will adjust to the speed of the game, which is much greater than what they’re used to. It’s a good core. If those three are going well, we will be OK. We look for more support.”

Lauren VanExter, a spot starter for about half of last season, is another versatile starter who, at 5-8, will play either guard or forward. “She does not get the notoriety of the others but she’ll dive for the loose ball and get the rebound, take the charge — some things that don’t show up on the stat sheet,” said Brennan.

Christiana Rutkowski, a 5-7 sophomore, is the other starter. “She’s a guard who is not afraid to mix it up,” Brennan said. “She’ll stretch defenses with a long jump shot and then, on the defensive side, she’s a great communicator. They all communicate well.”

Brennan said Gannon’s “asset is on the defensive side,” but she also has a jump shot she can turn to. Gray, meanwhile, is looking more to her outside shot this season after averaging 14 points and eight rebounds a game last season, and Brennan said she “is now accepting the role of being more of an offensive threat. She was always a slasher and I’m happy with her full development.”

Brennan said he is looking to continue to develop a rotation and sound bench this week in the Holmdel Bayshore Christmas Tournament. Middletown South played Mater Dei on Dec. 26 in the opener.

But the rest of the team is young and unproven aside from senior Tara Congialosi, who Brennan said “probably did more this year to get ready (for the season) than anybody. We’re looking for her to come off the bench and be more of a defensive stopper. That’s important. You don’t worry about who starts but who is there at the finish.”

Along with young Haspel, Brennan will look to the bench to senior 5-6 guard Kelsey Logan as well as sophomore 5-9 swing player

Rachel Becker, who led the soccer team to a division championship last fall and can shut down the passing lanes defensively on the hardwood.

Two freshmen also are expected to contribute more as the season moves along — 5-6 guardAngela DeBartelome and 6-0 forward Jill Falvey. “Both are extremely athletic and good basketball players,” Brennan said. “They both have high basketball IQs, but once they get the idea of how tough high school basketball is in the Shore Conference, they’ll be fine.”

They’ll get a good sense of that next month when Middletown South travels to rival Middletown North on Jan. 4 and plays host to Manalapan the next day.