Red Bank Regional High School’s girls basketball team will be looking to turn things around this week following a tough 0-5 start to the season.
Coach James Young’s team, coming off a 13-13 record a year ago, was faced with the difficult task of playing its first two games against Red Bank Catholic and St. John Vianney — two of the top teams in the state.
RBC downed the Lady Bucs, 59-32, and SJV scored a 67-36 victory; in its next game Red Bank came out flat and fell to Freehold Borough by a 42-30 count.
“We had to play two top-echelon teams, and that’s usually a good thing because you can gauge the areas you need to work on to get to that level,” the coach said. “We were hoping to come out of those games with a strong effort, but we did not play well against the borough.”
In its first-round Lady Wave Tournament game in Long Branch, the Lady Bucs ran into aMatawan team that roared out to a 15- 5 lead and never looked back after going into the half up 31-9. Red Bank did turn in a solid effort in its consolation-round loss to Jackson Liberty.
Young’s team pitched a shutout through the first quarter, but a 16-4 Jackson Liberty run in the second put RBR down 16-11 at intermission. The second half was fairly even.
“We’re really struggling right now,” said Young, whose team was set to return to action yesterday at home against Matawan. “I still think our team will be competitive. Right now it’s all about putting the ball in the basket. We need to score more points and we need to rebound in numbers because we’re a bit undersized.”
As they look to turn things around, the Lady Bucs will look to guards Theresa Soya and Kayla Cunningham to lead the way. Soya, a four-year starter, is averaging seven points, including 10 in the Freehold Borough game. Cunningham, who plays the point, has been averaging six points and four assists. Kerry Lang, who picked up seven points in the Jackson Liberty loss, is the third guard.
Junior forward Zoe Curtis can also score, and has been averaging about seven points to go with eight rebounds per game. Center Shannon Roberto is strong under the basket.
The bench is fairly deep and young outside of senior forward Alexis Burr, who has seen more playing time of late and scored seven points in the loss to Matawan. Sophomores Mia Schoening and Jazz Van Loon spell the guards, and Paris Van Loon gives the Lady Bucs added depth up front. Freshman guard Devon Van Loon will likely see more minutes as the season progresses.
“We’re disappointed with our start, especially after last year, which was our best season in a decade or so,” Young said. “Fortunately, there’s still a lot of time left and we do have a lot of talented players.”
This afternoon Red Bank will visit Shore Regional before returning home to meet Point Pleasant Beach tomorrow evening. Rumson-Fair Haven comes to call on Monday.