Team gets ninth seed in CJ 1
By: John E. Powers
The Manville High School girls’ basketball team seems destined to finish with a .500 record, at least if the recent pattern of winning and losing remains the same.
The Lady Mustangs, after climbing over the break-even mark last week with an impressive win against David Brearley of Kenilworth, fell back to the .500 mark at 10-10 when they dropped a 47-34 decision to Jonathan Dayton of Springfield Friday night in Manville.
In the junior varsity game, the Manville girls, who were soundly beaten by Dayton earlier in the season, defeated the Bulldogs. The varsity squad also played a much better game against the Union County school this time around.
"They had to really work to beat us," said Manville head coach Paul Lenihan, whose team finished 12-12 last year. "We were down 28-15 at halftime, but we made some inroads in the second half as far as the score was concerned."
Considering that Manville dropped a 54-28 decision in Springfield back on Jan. 10, Lenihan made a good point. Dayton star Esther Aizenberg, on the brink of scoring her 1,000th career point, didn’t reach her milestone and finished with 11.
"It wasn’t our greatest game, that’s for sure, but I think we played a lot better than when we played them the first time," junior forward Heather Mathieu said. "We had our defense on and we were forcing turnovers. The problem was that we were holding them to just one shot at the basket most times, but a lot of times that one shot went in for them. We really worked as a team."
Junior center Amy Ortman, plagued by a touch of the flu, fought through to finish with her second straight strong game. In the Tuesday win against Brearley, Ortman finished with 16 points. Against Dayton, Ortman had 12.
"Amy had a really good game," Mathieu said. "We just kept dishing the ball into her. We had a lot of put backs. She had a height advantage and we took advantage of it."
The Lady Mustangs played an even game with the Bulldogs in the second half, both teams scoring 19 points. Dayton did hurt Manville from the foul shots, sinking 12-of-15 from the free throw line. Manville converted six foul shots.
"I don’t think we over-fouled them," Lenihan said. "We fell behind and we went to a man-to-man defense. Then we pressed them. I thought we did well. I look at Dayton as being a very good basketball team."
Senior guard Rachel Rivera finished with seven points, while Lisa Lavenia, Jenna Breslow and Mathieu had four apiece. Lavenia, a junior point guard, was hurt diving for a loose ball with four minutes left, but she figured not to miss any games.
The Manville girls, who received the ninth seed in the upcoming Central Jersey Group 1 tournament, were slated to play at St. Mary of Elizabeth Tuesday. Manville will close out the regular season tomorrow night with a home game against North Plainfield. The Canucks beat Manville 42-34 back on Jan. 15.
"As I’ve said all year, we’re going to use the Dayton game as a lesson and learn from it," Lenihan said. "We’ll move on. I thought the kids played tough."