Cranford girls' basketball dominates Union Catholic 38-21 for 5th straight victory; Cougars have big game at Roselle Friday, Jan. 8 - Cranford Navigator
By JR Parachini
Union County Sports Editor
CRANFORD – Playing solid, relentless, hands up and hand-in-your-face defense and limiting the opponent from having any easy open shots is what third-year Cranford girls’ basketball coach Jackie Huber learned while she played for Union Catholic coach Kathy Matthews.
That style of play worked well enough for Matthews to guide the Vikings to more than 600 victories in over 20 years, including conference, county and state crowns.
At present time, that type of performance is what is working for Cranford as the pupil – Huber, a 2001 UC grad who as a senior played on UC’s last Union County Tournament championship team – has learned well from the master – Matthews.
Cranford started out in zone against Union Catholic Thursday night and then switched up to man coverage for the second half, with both defensive schemes proving quite effective against the visiting Vikings.
The home team Cougars allowed only nine baskets – all 2-pointers – and did not allow a field goal in the first quarter.
“They were passing the ball around a lot and not shooting and trying to make us fall asleep,” Cranford senior point guard Jamie Webb said. “By that time they got off a bad shot and we just rebounded.”
Union Catholic shot just 9-for-41 from the field and was held to four points or less in three of the four quarters.
It added up to another dominating defensive performance by Cranford, which went on to a convincing 38-21 triumph in Union County Conference-Mountain Division play.
Cranford won its fifth straight to improve to 5-1 overall and 3-1 in the Mountain Division. The only Cougar loss was a 37-35 conference setback at Governor Livingston on Opening Night, Dec. 18.
Cranford will wrap this week’s schedule with a conference game at Roselle Friday at 4 p.m. – weather permitting based on possible snowfall. Roselle improved to 4-2 overall and 3-1 in the Mountain Division after beating GL 52-42 at home Thursday, with the Rams winning the critical fourth quarter 20-11.
Union Catholic lost for the second straight time and fell to 4-3 overall and 1-3 in the Mountain Division. The Vikings are to wrap this week’s schedule by hosting GL Friday night at 7.
Cranford led 11-3 after the first quarter and then 18-7 in the second before Union Catholic ended the first half with a 6-0 run to cut the deficit to 18-13 at intermission.
Viking baskets by senior guard Colleen Mulkern – who paced UC with seven points – and junior guard Ally Guzman pulled the visitors to within one at 18-17 two minutes into the third quarter.
When Cranford needed a leader to step up at that moment and put an end to a Viking 10-0 run, Webb – a three-year varsity starter - was up to the task. Off a well-executed pass from sophomore Morgan Miller, Webb drove to the hoop and scored on a layup to put the Cougars ahead 20-17.
That basket began what turned out to be a 16-0 run for Cranford, with the Cougars scoring the last eight points of the third quarter and first eight of the fourth.
“Jamie’s been working extremely hard for us,” Huber said. “She’s been our leader on and off the floor and she’s been doing a phenomenal job.
“When we need someone to step up, Jamie steps up for us.”
Cranford never trailed and did not allow one Union Catholic player to score in double digits.
The Cougars have yielded only 205 points in six games for a stingy average against of 34.16. Only one team – Group 4 West Orange with 43 points in a 44-43 Livingston Tournament final setback to Cranford – has scored more than 40 points on the Cougars so far.
Webb led the way Thursday night with 16 points and also had two steals and one block.
She felt the turning point when Union Catholic got close was when Cranford switched defensively from zone to man coverage.
“We’re so used to playing zone because we’ve been playing everything in zone and we’ve been doing well,” Webb said.
Union Catholic found a way to get around Cranford’s zone, beginning with an offensive rebound and putback by junior forward Alex Evans following Webb’s only 3-point basket. Sophomore Quorea Pearyer then hit a jumper from the right side and Evans followed that up with an inside basket to get the score to 18-13.
“They were making us fall to different zones and when we switched to man we were kind of not ready,” Webb said.
Thus, UC scored two more baskets at the start of the third quarter to pull to within one before Cranford’s man coverage took over and Webb’s fourth basket of the game sparked the 16-0 run.
“Once we picked up our intensity, we did well after that,” said Webb, with Cranford playing in man the rest of the game.
Union Catholic was held to a season-low 21 points and outscored 20-8 in the second half after outscoring Cranford 10-7 in the second quarter to start to get back into the game.
“We just go into scoring droughts, we didn’t shoot the ball very well,” Matthews said. “It’s not our defense. How many points did we give up today?
“But if you can’t score, you’re not going to win games. Usually defense wins games when you give up 38 points.
“What percentage did we shoot from the field? We shot 9-for-42. That’s what the game’s all about.”
“We talked at halftime about how the tempo of the game was not our tempo,” Huber said. “We’re a very fast-paced team that likes to push the ball up the floor. Going to Union Catholic, I know that she (Matthews) likes to slow the game down and be in control and make sure they’re running through their offenses, but I said to the girls that that’s not the kind of team that we are and we need to pick up the tempo and we need to control the game for the rest of the game and that’s why we went into man.
“Zone wasn’t really working for us.”
Webb continued the 16-0 run by taking a give-and-go pass from Miller and scoring. Senior forward Danielle Gross scored Cranford’s final four points of the third quarter on a field goal from the left side off an assist from Webb and two free throws.
Webb scored on a free throw and then a lefty layup in the lane to start the fourth quarter. Then senior forward Taylor D’Antico – who also contributed four rebounds, two blocks and one steal - stole the ball and scored her only basket.
Reserve freshman Jenna Goeller drove strong to the hoop to not only score on a layup, but got fouled and then made the ensuing free throw to cap the 16-0 run.
The only Union Catholic baskets in the fourth quarter were scored by reserves Pearyer – who finished with four points – and Cate Munkittrick.
Cranford was also sparked by the play of freshman starting 2-guard Jessica McCoy, who proved that you don’t have to just score points to be an effective basketball player.
Although she scored only three points and made just one of her field goal attempts, McCoy did quite well to grab eight rebounds total – five defensive and three offensive – and also blocked five Union Catholic shots.
“For someone whose shots aren’t falling on offense and isn’t doing well, that’s what we emphasize,” Huber said. “If you’re not doing well on one end of the floor, you need to go back and do well on the other end.
“That’s what Jessica accomplished tonight with her rebounding and blocked shots.”
McCoy is one of three freshmen on the varsity roster, including Goeller and Kaitlin McGovern.
“The freshmen came in and I knew them from middle school,” Huber said. “They’re very skilled, athletic, hard-working girls.
“Right from the first day they caught on extremely quickly. They just molded well with the team.
“You wouldn’t even know they were freshmen, unless you asked.”
Webb and her teammates are not looking ahead at all. A very tough Roselle team is awaiting Friday.
“We want to win our next game tomorrow against Roselle, they’re a really aggressive team,” Webb said.
Roselle had Cranford’s number last year, beating the Cougars 49-30 at Cranford on Opening Night and then 54-34 in Roselle five weeks later.
“We need to bring in 110 percent when we go down the floor and not let them get us fouled up,” Webb said. “We have to be calm and just drive to the basket.”
NOTES: Union Catholic went up against two of the top teams in the Mountain Division this week in Roselle Catholic and Cranford.
“I thought we played three very good quarters against RC and I thought we would take that over to tonight and we did not,” Matthews said. “So, we’re going to have to go back to playing our game tomorrow and then back to the drawing board for the weekend.”
Huber sees the Mountain Division very challenging as always.
“Our county and our conference – to me in my eyes – is wide open,” Huber said. “There are a lot of undefeated teams that are going to be playing each other and I think it’s just going to be who wants it more, who fights for it more and who goes and gets it.”
Although starting sophomore guard Jasmine Serano did not score for Union Catholic, she did come up with two steals in the first quarter.
Mulkern and senior forward Brenda Eke had three rebounds each in the second quarter. Eke finished with two points, making two free throws.
Miller scored all 10 of her points in the first half.
UNION COUNTY CONFERENCE-MOUNTAIN DIVISION GAME
UNION CATHOLIC (4-3, 1-3) 3 10 4 4 - 21
CRANFORD (5-1, 3-1) 11 7 8 12 - 38
UNION CATHOLIC (21): Cate Munkittrick 1-0-0-2, Quorea Pearyer 2-0-0-4, Ally Guzman 1-0-0-2, Colleen Mulkern 3-0-1-7, Alex Evans 2-0-0-4, Brenda Eke 0-0-2-2. Totals: 9-0-3-21.
Starters: Evans, Guzman, Mulkern, Jasmine Serano, Jackie Thomas.
CRANFORD (38): Jessica McCoy 1-0-1-3, Jamie Webb 6-1-1-16, Jenna Goeller 1-0-1-3, Taylor D’Antico 1-0-0-2, Danielle Gross 1-0-2-4, Morgan Miller 2-2-0-10. Totals: 12-3-5-38.
Starters: D’Antico, Gross, McCoy, Miller, Webb.
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