An article about RC, but with lots of info on Cranford and Union County at the bottom

The original article is posted here:
http://www.sidelinechatter.com/sport1.htm
But may disappear as it moves through the archives, so it is reposted in it's entirety here.

Roselle Catholic Girls Bounce Back
In Knocking Off 5th-Ranked Piscataway 

...THIS WEEK IN UNION COUNTY GIRLS' BASKETBALL

By JR Parachini
For sidelinechatter.com

Cranford beats state-ranked Roselle Catholic 49-47 at the buzzer Saturday at Roselle Catholic, outscoring the undefeated Lions 18-5 in the fourth quarter after losing the first three periods.
"We were calm, cool and collected even though we were down by 11 going into the fourth quarter," said Cranford senior Jamie Webb, who wears No. 15 and paced the Cougars with a 15-point effort after making the game-winning basket on a lefty layup at the buzzer after receiving a nice pass from freshman standout Jessica McCoy.
"We seem to play better in the second half and our girls know that if they are down they have to focus," Cranford third-year head coach Jackie Huber said.
Roselle Catholic then faced higher state-ranked North 2, Group 4 power Piscataway Sunday in the "She Got Next" Invitational at Kean University in Union and not only won 55-42, but outscored the 9-2 Chiefs in all four quarters.
Roselle Catholic was ranked No. 13 in the state by The Star-Ledger and Piscataway No. 5.
The Lions, who improved to 9-1, received a game-high 29 points from senior standout Allison Skrec, who also grabbed seven rebounds, dished out two assists and came up with one steal.
"It was probably the highest-rated/ranked team an RC girls' baskeball squad has ever beaten," 14th-year RC head coach Joe Skrec said.
Piscataway cut the lead to seven in the fourth quarter, but didn't get closer than that. Roselle Catholic made 21-of-27 free throw attempts - including 11-of-14 in the fourth quarter - after making 27-of-39 against Cranford.
Skrec, who scored 11 in the third quarter and six in the fourth, made seven of her first eight field goal attempts.
Jenny Malone, Melissa Tobie and Anthonia Ajumobi all sank three of four free throws in the fourth quarter, helping stave off the Chiefs.
Senior forward Meghan Faughnan grabbed a team-high nine rebounds for the Lions.
"Malone's defense on Piscataway point guard Raven Gerald was outstanding," coach Skrec said. "Tobie had a strong, all-around game."
Gerald, who will continue playing at Division 1 University of Maryland-Baltimore County, was held to four points, all in the fourth quarter.
Although the Lions fell for the first time in Union County Conference-Mountain Division play Saturday after a 6-0 start in league competition, Roselle Catholic will gladly trade a non-league victory over a high-profile team such as Piscataway for a tough loss to Cranford, which is a team the Lions will face again on the road - Feb. 11 at 7 p.m.
"Fortunately, we have a very experienced team and a mature team, including our younger players," coach Skrec said. "One of our goals is to try to get better, even just a little bit better, every day, whether it's in practice or in a game."
Roselle Catholic, coming off a 22-4 season and now 31-5 in its last 36 games, proved right away that it has bounce back ability.
"We played a box-and-1 for most of the game, if not all," coach Skrec continued. "Malone just did a wonderful job on Gerald."
Sophomore standout Danaejah Grant paced Piscataway with a 20-point performance.
"She's already a big-time Division 1 prospect," Skrec said. "We tried to take away the head, sort of speak.
"Gerald is a good point guard, not spectacular, but smooth and she gets others involved. Malone didn't allow her to do that and received tremendous help from all of her teammates.
"Gerald couldn't get into any kind of rhthym, which was the key to the game. We've seen Piscataway turn teams over tremendously. We got the game to a speed and pace that was comfortable for us on offense and we shot the ball pretty well.
"I give our girls a lot of credit, because there were a lot of long faces after the Cranford game. They saw the Cranford girls jubilant and I reminded them that this has to be fun.
"We were sort of the hunter and playing a team that many people thought was better than us. I give our girls a lot of credit after the Cranford loss. They showed a lot of resiliency."
Picking a Top 10 this week was not easy by any means because - once again, which is great - teams are beating other teams all over the place. That's the mystery of Union County girls' basketball, which makes it such an interesting area of roundball to attempt to keep track of.
Here is my Top 10 for this week, with key results following each team:
1-Roselle Catholic (9-1) - lost at home to Cranford 49-47 at buzzer
2-Summit (8-0) - first time 8-0 since starting 1997-1998 season 10-0
3-Roselle (8-2, 6 in a row) - playing at Kean University Monday
4-Cranford (7-2, 2 in a row) - lost at GL 37-35 and at Roselle 52-50, won at RC 49-47
5-New Providence (7-0) - won at Dayton 36-32, won at Union 29-28
6-Dayton (8-1, 8 in a row) - won at Union 50-45
7-Linden (6-4) - beat Plainfield 36-33 at home, lost at Union 39-33
8-Union (5-6) - beat Linden 39-33 at home, lost 5 games by 6 points or less
9-Plainfield (4-5, 2 in a row) - lost at Linden 36-33
10-Governor Livingston (5-5) - beat Cranford 37-35 at home
Next 2: Hillside (3-5) - beat GL 41-34 at home. Johnson (4-4) - won at Hillside 44-31.
Rest: Westfield (3-6), Scotch Plains (2-7), Oak Knoll (6-3), Rahway (2-5), Brearley (5-3),
Mother Seton (4-6), Union Catholic (4-4), Benedictine Academy (5-4), Kent Place (2-5),
Elizabeth (0-8), Roselle Park (0-8), St. Mary's (1-5), St. Patrick (0-4).
So far we've seen Roselle Catholic beat Roselle twice (regular season and holiday tournament play), while Roselle has defeated Cranford and Cranford has beaten Roselle Catholic.
Then we've seen Dayton and New Providence defeat Union, yet Union defeated Linden.
Governor Livingston has defeated Cranford and lost to Hillside, Roselle and Roselle Catholic.
Hillside defeated GL, yet lost to Johnson, which lost to GL.
On and on we go.
As of today - Monday, Jan. 18 - Summit and New Providence are the only undefeated Union County teams remaining and that may not last much longer since both are playing at Roselle Catholic this week.
New Providence was the last Union County team to lose last year, going 19-0 before falling to Roselle in first round Union County Tournament play. The Pioneers finished 21-4, also losing to GL in overtime and Roselle in regular season play and to Bloomfield Tech in a North 2, Group 1 semifinal.
New Providence hosts Dayton Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. in a big UCC-Valley Division contest.
Summit begins the week leading the UCC's Watchung Division.
Roselle Catholic and Roselle both start the week with just one loss in the Mountain Division standings - RC to Cranford and Roselle to RC.
Things didn't go Union's way in a tough 29-28 home loss to New Providence Wednesday, but the Farmers - sparked by the play of senior point guard Kyarah Foushee - showed comeback ability by handing Linden its first conference loss 24 hours later in a 39-33 home triumph. Foushee scored six points in the fourth quarter when Union outscored Linden 16-10 after the game was deadlocked 23-23 after three quarters.
"We played hard against New Providence and just came up short," Union head coach Justin Meyer said. "Tomorrow (meaning last Thursday against Linden) we have to try a little harder."
Union did just that in beating arch rival Linden. The Tigers will host Union in conference play on Feb. 6 at 1 p.m., which is the state playoff cutoff date.
Like Roselle Catholic against Piscataway and Union vs. Linden, Linden showed great bounce-back ability by beating Woodbridge 42-37 at home Saturday. The Tigers outscored their Middlesex County opponent 12-6 in the fourth quarter.
Roselle Catholic and Linden wins over tough Middlesex County foes over the weekend proved big for Union County's rising reputation.
SOME GAMES OF NOTE THIS WEEK:
Monday, Jan. 18
Roselle playing Manhattan Center at Kean University, Union, 6 p.m.
RING CITY INVITATIONAL
 
Tuesday, Jan. 19
Union at Union Catholic, 4 p.m.
Cranford at Linden, 4 p.m.
Summit at Roselle Catholic, 7 p.m.
 
Thursday, Jan. 21
Westfield at Union, 4 p.m.
New Providence at Roselle Catholic, 4 p.m.
Roselle at Oak Knoll, 4 p.m.
 
Friday, Jan. 22
Hillside at Roselle, 4 p.m.
Johnson at Union Catholic, 7 p.m.
Also . . .
Roselle Catholic started out 9-0 last year and then lost at home to Cranford 44-33 in conference play after beating the Cougars 39-31 in Cranford four games earlier. That was the lowest offensive output by the Lions at that time in the season, with Cranford in front the whole game. Despite the league setback, Roselle Catholic went on to capture the last Mountain Valley Conference-Mountain Division title.
In last year's Union County Tournament quarterfinals at Rahway, Roselle Catholic came back to edge Cranford 36-35, scoring eight of the game's final nine points after Cranford led 34-28 with two minutes to go. Roselle Catholic went on to capture its second UCT title and first since 2003.
Roselle Catholic started out 8-0 this year and then lost at home to Cranford 49-47 Saturday on a Jamie Webb buzzer-beating layup. That was the second-lowest offensive output by the Lions at this time of the season, with Cranford coming back from an 11-point deficit to start the fourth quarter (42-31) and outscoring Roselle Catholic 18-5 in the final period after being outscored in each of the first three quarters. Cranford will host Roselle Catholic in conference play Feb. 11 at 7 p.m.
Two years ago in the season-opener for both, Cranford won at Roselle Catholic 41-38 in overtime, so Cranford has handed Roselle Catholic its first loss of the season three years in a row now - with all three games being played at the Lions Den at RC in Roselle.
Roselle Catholic senior Allison Skrec scored a game-high 21 points to help lead the Lions to a convincing 50-26 conference home win over GL Thursday, reaching 1,000 career points on the nose. She then got to 60 points the quickest over the weekend, scoring a game-high 31 points in her team's setback to Cranford and a game-high 29 in her team's triumph over Piscataway.
"As long as we win, that's all that matters and is what's most important to me," Skrec said.
According to www.summitsports.org, Summit senior sharpshooter Emily Cristaldi, who will continue playing at Division 3 Muhlenberg, has 778 career points after netting a game-high 21 in her team's 40-33 non-league win at GL Saturday.
UNION COUNTY TOURNAMENT TO BE SEEDED FEB. 10
The Union County Tournament will be seeded Feb. 10 and will conclude at Roselle Catholic with the semifinals Feb. 22 and the final Feb. 26.
Preliminary round games will take place the first weekend after the Feb. 10 seeding meeting, with the eight first round games set for Feb. 15. The quarterfinals will take place Feb. 18.

Roselle Catholic standout Allison Skrec (21) reaches high for ball against Cranford on Saturday.

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