By: Carolyn M. Hartko
NORTH BRUNSWICK The Monroe Township High School girls’ basketball team didn’t know it at the time, but when North Brunswick’s Joelle VonBischoffshausen hit a three-pointer with just over a minute left to play in Tuesday evening’s game, the Falcon dream of pulling off an upset in this year’s Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament was over.
Bringing the score to 29-27, that trey put the Lady Raiders up for good, allowing North the luxury of holding onto the ball and forcing the visitors to foul. The Falcons came within one (30-29) with just 24 seconds left on the clock, but a free throw five seconds later sealed the Raiders’ victory at 31-29.
As the 21st seed, Monroe bowed out of the 2004 tourney in the first round, ending its season at 7-14, while 12th seeded North Brunswick (8-11) moves on to play at 5th seeded Colonia tonight (Friday).
This was the third time this winter that the Falcons and Raiders had faced off. The two White Division rivals split the regular season with North Brunswick winning the first game, and Monroe picking up the second.
"We didn’t think this was going to be our last game," Falcon senior Katie Lederman said. "We had a tough game the first time with North Brunswick, and then the second game we beat them. The first game, we even had a big comeback, so we didn’t think this was our last game at all. I really had high hopes for a next game. I really thought we’d make it to the second round."
The game was a nail-biter to the bitter end. The teams were tied 6-6 after one quarter, and Monroe was up 12-11 at the half. North picked up an extra three points in the third period, which proved to be the difference since the fourth was another dead heat (9-9). In the final two minutes on the clock, Falcon junior Emma Bossard (six points) hit an outside jumper, then assisted on a post-up by Ali Baumlin and a lay-up by Lederman. Baumlin led all players with 11 points, and Lederman tossed in eight. Zawadi Anglin paced the Raiders with 10 points and nine rebounds, and Tishawna Higgins added eight on offense for the home team.
"We felt pretty good about playing against them, especially if we could keep the score down," Falcon head coach Keith Hudak said. "And that’s the way the game went. Sometimes things go your way, sometimes they don’t. A lot of things didn’t go our way today. There was one call on Ali that would have put us up five points with about three minutes left in the game. And in a game like this, that’s huge."
Monroe went into Tuesday’s game concentrating on the two things that have bugged the squad all season: rebounding and keeping the turnovers down.
"You could come to any pre-game and listen to us, and it would be the same thing every time," Hudak said. "Let’s rebound, and not turn the ball over. And when we could do those two things, we usually hung around and were at least in the game."
It was a hard way to end the season, especially for the team’s three seniors, Lederman, Laura Gibbons and Laurie Costello. Since Lederman, primarily a soccer player, does not play a spring sport for Monroe, this was her last chance to wear the purple and gold.
"I’m pretty upset because basketball’s over, and I’m not playing basketball anymore," Lederman said. "So it’s depressing, and I’m going to miss the team a lot. I’ll miss the girls."
FREE THROWS: Most of this year’s first round games in the girls’ GMCT were blowouts. The two-point squeaker between Monroe and North Brunswick was the closest match, and two other games were won by five points.
