PDS girls hoops pulls pair of upsets
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
What had been a frustrating season for the Princeton Day School girls basketball team has taken a turn for the better.
The Panthers, whose season has been derailed by injuries, now find themselves in the Mercer County Tournament semifinals thanks to upset wins over West Windsor-Plainsboro South and Ewing.
The 12th-seeded Panthers will take on top-seeded Hopewell Valley today at 6 p.m. at Mercer County Community College. The game is one of four today at MCCC. Admission to the semifinals and finals will be $5 for adults and $2 for senior citizens and students. A ticket is good for all four games on Friday and both games on Feb 23. There will be no presale of tickets for the semifinals.
PDS opened the tournament with a 47-45 win over fifth-seeded WW-P South on Monday. Lauren Johnson scored 19 points and Molly Rubin added 15 to pace the offense for the Panthers. Then on Wednesday, the Panthers went back on the road and knocked off fourth-seeded Ewing, 42-39. Sarah Godwin scored 19 points and Rubin added 12 for the Panthers.
”We certainly have exceeded expectations,” PDS coach Mika Ryan said. “They are so excited. I know a 12 seed has never gone to the Mercer County semis. We felt if we could get to the tournament somewhat healthy and somewhat organized that we really believed that we could get there. It goes back to the difficulty of our schedule. We just knew that we had played so many tough schools. It had to pay off somewhere.”
The Panthers improved to 10-12 with the two wins and will face a Hopewell team that improved to 21-1 with a 51-31 win over WW-P North.
The Knights had reached the quarterfinals with a 44-31 win over Notre Dame on Monday. Kayla Foster led the Knights with 14 points. Both WW-P South and Princeton lost their openers and then came back to win consolation games on Wednesday.
After falling to PDS on Monday, the Pirates topped Robbinsville, 56-52, on Wednesday as Gabi Hahn scored 20 points and Erica Aduya added 13. Princeton, which lost to top-seeded Hopewell on Monday, came back to beat Nottingham, 53-48, on Wednesday for its first win of the season. Michelle Bazile had 14 points and Jochebed Muflam added 10 for the Little Tigers.
On the boys side, WW-P South was an upset victim as the second-seeded Pirates lost to 10th-seeded Hightstown, 44-43, on a last-second shot. Bryan Rivers had 13 points and Ryan Witter added 12 to lead the offense for the Pirates, who had defeated Hopewell in the opening round.
Princeton opened the tournament with a 52-43 win over Nottingham before falling to top-seeded Notre Dame, 68-61, on Wednesday. Davon Black had 17 points in the opening win, while Lior Levy and Matt Hoffman each had 15 in the loss to Notre Dame.
WW-P North and PDS both lost their openers on Monday. The Knights nearly shocked top-seeded Notre Dame before falling, 54-52. Chris Okorodudu had 17 points and Darrien Banks added 13. The Panthers fell to Hightstown, 62-52, then came back to defeat Nottingham, 66-64, in the consolation round. Davon Reed had 25 points in the win over Nottingham after leading the Panthers with 22 in the loss to Hightstown.
The PDS girls got off to a good start against Ewing, grabbing a 13-8 lead after the opening quarter. The Panthers still led by a point at halftime and two points after three quarters as they held on for the win.
”I thought we had a good start,” Ryan said “The key to our start is that we didn’t let them score in transition. We knew if they started that it would be a long night for us because that really ignites them and gets them going. I thought we did a terrific job of getting back.
”We have always been a good defensive club. Our weakness this year is our inability to score. But we are scoring a little more and a little better. We are finally starting to get a little healthy.”
Now the Panthers get a shot at another upset against the top seed in the tournament.
”They fought hard,” Ryan said. “It is hard for me to even talk about it because we have hung together all year through so many ups and downs. I just love being around them. I don’t know how to put in words what this team means to me.”