Cranford girls' basketball tops Johnson for 6th consecutive victory - Cranford Navigator

Cranford girls' basketball tops Johnson for 6th consecutive victory - Cranford Navigator

ROSELLE and then CLARK – Friday was a good day for road teams Roselle Catholic and Cranford as both captured key Union County Conference-Mountain Division girls’ basketball triumphs in decisive fashion.
Both also won by double digits and each netted exactly 62 points, with Roselle Catholic topping Roselle for the third time in three tries this season, 62-33; and Cranford sweeping Johnson in conference play, winning 62-51.
Both also snapped winning streaks, with Roselle’s ending at 11 and Johnson’s at four.
Roselle Catholic also took the lead in the Mountain Division with its win over Roselle. Roselle Catholic is now 8-1 in the division, followed by Roselle at 7-2 and Cranford at 6-2.
Roselle was without leading scorer – senior Jakoya Duggans, who is averaging 17 points. It was reported by the team that she suffered a knee injury in Tuesday’s conference game at Roselle Park, which prevented her from playing in Thursday’s conference game at Union Catholic in addition to Friday’s home conference game vs. Roselle Catholic.
Duggans tied teammate Shan-Tasia Padgett for team-high honors in scoring vs. Roselle Park, both netting 21 in a 72-33 victory.
Duggans poured in a game-high 20 points in Roselle’s 58-52 conference loss at Roselle Catholic on Dec. 22 and then led the Rams again with 17 – scoring nine in the fourth quarter – in a 61-52 loss at Roselle Catholic in the Dec. 30 Roselle Catholic Holiday Tournament championship game at the Lions Den in Roselle.
It was also reported that Roselle junior Joye Hunter is out for the season with a knee injury.

Roselle Catholic is now 13-2 and has won two straight.
The Lions are also 8-1 and in first place in the Mountain Division. They have five division games remaining: Feb. 2 Union Catholic, 7 p.m.; Feb. 4 at Hillside, 4 p.m.; Feb. 5 at Johnson, 7 p.m.; Feb. 10 vs. Governor Livingston at Izod Center, East Rutherford, 3:15 p.m.; Feb. 11 at Cranford, 7 p.m.

Roselle is now 13-3 and had an 11-game winning streak snapped. All three of its losses are to Roselle Catholic, two in conference play and one in holiday tournament competition.
The Rams are also 7-2 and in second place in the Mountain Division. They have five division games remaining: Feb. 2 at Johnson, 4 p.m.; Feb. 4 at Gov. Livingston, 4 p.m.; Feb. 5 at Cranford, 4 p.m.; Feb. 9 at Hillside, 4 p.m.; Feb. 11 Roselle Park, 4 p.m.

Cranford is now 11-2 and has won six straight.
The Cougars are also 6-2 in the Mountain Division. They have six division games remaining: Feb. 2 at Hillside, 4 p.m.; Feb. 4 at Union Catholic, 4 p.m.; Feb. 5 Roselle, 4 p.m.; Feb. 9 at Roselle Park, 4 p.m.; Feb. 11 Roselle Catholic, 7 p.m.; Feb. 19 Gov. Livingston, 7 p.m.

Johnson is now 8-5 and had a four-game winning streak snapped.
The Crusaders are also 4-5 in the Mountain Division. They have five division games remaining: Feb. 2 Roselle, 7 p.m.; Feb. 4 Roselle Park, 7 p.m.; Feb. 5 Roselle Catholic, 7 p.m.; Feb. 9 Union Catholic, 7 p.m.; Feb. 11 Gov. Livingston, p.m.

Although Roselle Catholic is 3-0 vs. in-town, right-around-the-corner rival Roselle so far this year, the Lions may have to beat the Rams one more time in order to advance or even repeat as Union County Tournament champions next month.
An Allison Skrec free throw tied Friday’s game for the second and last time at 8-8 during the second half of the first quarter. It also ignited what turned out to be a knockout 17-0 run for the visiting Lions that included the last nine points of the first quarter and first eight of the second.
Roselle Catholic was more aggressive in the first quarter, out-rebounding Roselle 9-4 in the first eight minutes.
“We executed a defensive game-plan real well,” Roselle Catholic head coach Joe Skrec said. “We tried to take away some of their penetration - they’re very, very good at going to the basket - and we had a lot of girls make shots today.
“When things are going well for us, we can – easily – have five girls be offensive threats.”
Skrec paced Roselle Catholic with 20 points, which is what she is averaging. She now has 1,136 career points and is closing in on the school record of 1,267 established by Schrene Isidora in 1999.
Also scoring in double digits for the Lions were senior shooting guard Meghan Faughnan with 17 and junior forward Melissa Tobie with 16. Faughnan connected on four 3-pointers and Tobie was strong and successful driving to the basket.
Senior point guard Jenny Malone netted eight points and produced a good amount of assists. Roselle Catholic’s screens and passing to the open player underneath had Roselle fooled on more than one occasion.
“We have confidence when any of our players take shots,” Skrec said. “Today we moved the ball pretty well and I think we shot the ball pretty well and I think this is going to boost our confidence.”
Skrec said that in reference to Monday’s 46-40 non-conference loss at Toms River North, in a game played at the Ritacco Center. The Lions bounced back to win at conference foe Roselle Park 55-29 Thursday.
“Monday night hurt,” Skrec said. “We were outscored 20-4 to close the game. It went well for three quarters, or three quarters and two minutes.
“Looking back, we don’t have it on tape, but looking back I think we weren’t getting shots. We had a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter and then we weren’t getting shots.
“They became more aggressive and it’s a very good team we played. A lot of people said, ‘why did you schedule a game like that on a Monday night, making that long trip’?
“Our coaching staff kept telling me that we will reap rewards from playing a game like that. Hopefully, today might have been a sign of that.
“Hopefully you get better from playing tough games. Nobody wants to lose, but you certainly can often learn more from losses. We had a couple of good days of practice to get ready for RP and Roselle and our girls were fired up and ready to play and hopefully, this can be a good start into February for us.”
Although Roselle Catholic senior starter Anthonia Ajumobi did not score, the tough to box out forward grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds. Her ability to get position and come down with a shot that fails to go in is as good as it gets in Union County.
Roselle was led offensively by junior guard Bianca Partlow, who was the only player on her team to score in double digits as she finished with 13 points.
Roselle did a better job of rebounding in the second half, with players such as Padgett, sophomore Nyasia Davis and senior Felicia Claiborne leading the way in that department.
It’s not easy to beat a quality team three times, but Allison Skrec and her teammates were ready to take on that challenge right from the opening tipoff.
“We were really excited coming into this game,” Allison Skrec said. “Coming off the loss (Monday) we were all revved up.”
Skrec scored five of Roselle Catholic’s first-quarter points in a 16-8 period and then poured in nine more in a second quarter that saw the Lions outscore the Rams 16-8.
“We always have that little extra push whenever we play Roselle,” Skrec said.
Roselle Catholic is not that far away from being 15-0. Both games the Lions lost, they had leads of 10 or more in the fourth quarter. The first setback was at home against Cranford 49-47 on Jan. 16. Roselle Catholic led that game 42-31 when the fourth quarter commenced before the visiting Cougars came back to win the fourth quarter 18-5 in the Lions Den.
“A couple of times this year we got a double-digit lead and then we stopped playing kind of, stopped attacking on offense and I think that’s what happened,” Skrec said. “And then we looked a little surprised when they came back, we didn’t know how to react.
“I know that we know how to react to that, we just didn’t.”
Roselle Catholic didn’t give up the big lead it built up against Roselle and kept going after the Rams. The Lions led by 33 before Roselle scored the game’s final two baskets.
“I think we learned from multiple experiences this year that we can’t stop playing,” Skrec said. “Today I don’t think we did at all, which is a credit to the whole team. We talked about that a lot after Monday, like staying together, and I think we did that.”
Roselle stayed together in the form of Malone getting the ball to Skrec or Skrec getting the ball to Tobie or Malone getting the ball to Faughnan for an advantageous 3-point attempt.
“I think our passing was on point,” Skrec said. After a couple of games we emphasized setting better screens and that opened things up.”
Cranford jumped out to a 4-0 lead on Johnson and then the home team Crusaders scored the game’s next seven points for a brief lead.
A 3-point basket by sophomore Morgan Miller tied the score for the last time at 9-9.
Cranford went on to outscore Johnson 10-5 the rest of the first quarter and led the remainder of the game.
Miller and senior guard Jamie Webb hit back-to-back 3-point baskets to give Cranford a 25-18 lead.
The Cougars led 35-27 at the half and then 38-31 in the third before Johnson made what turned out to be its last run – a 6-0 surge got the Crusaders to within one at 38-37 with 3:20 to play.
Two free throws by Danielle Gross began a 5-0 Cranford run and then after a basket by Johnson senior forward Gina Trani – who paced all scorers with 17 points – Kaitlin McGovern and Taylor D’Antico hit shots for a 47-38 lead.
Trani scored the final basket of the third quarter to pull Johnson to within 47-40 heading into the final eight minutes.
Webb then hit nothing but the bottom of the net when she connected on a 3-pointer from the top of the key to up Cranford’s lead to 50-40. After she made two free throws for a 52-40 advantage that put Cranford on a 14-3 run following the time Johnson cut the lead to one back in the third quarter.
Cranford cruised the rest of the fourth quarter. In their first conference meeting in Cranford back on Dec. 22, the Cougars downed the Crusaders 46-31.
“The fourth quarter is always our best quarter, so we just came out and did our thing,” Webb said.
What makes Cranford play better in the fourth quarter? The Cougars won the eight-minute stanza 15-11 Friday night.
“Some of our lapses during the first three quarters, we have to fix that, we have to make up for that, so it just happens that way,” Webb said. “This was actually our most consistent game of the year. This one and also the first one we played against them.
“We haven’t been consistent and our coach (Jackie Huber) keeps saying to us, ‘try to play a game where we’re up every quarter.”
That was almost the case against Johnson Friday night, with Cranford winning three of the four quarters and the only one it did not win Johnson outscored the Cougars only by one at 13-12 for the third quarter.
“We really want to do that because we don’t want to be nervous or worried if we’re going to win or not,” Webb said.
Miller had to sit down for almost the entire third quarter after picking up two quick fouls to give her four. Webb fouled out with 2:25 left.
However, others stepped up. Gross – a senior - finished with eight points, freshman Jessica McCoy and junior Sara Gugliuci with five each and freshman Kaitlin McGovern with four.
Webb paced Cranford with 15 points, hitting two 3-pointers; Miller was next with 13, making three 3s and D’Antico was next with 12, putting in two 3-point baskets. Cranford finished with the seven 3-pointers the above three players connected on.
“I don’t think they expected all the 3-point shots we gave them,” Webb said.
Both teams made 15 free throws, with Johnson junior guard Kristy Pflug also scoring in double digits as she finished with 12 points, including two 3-pointers. Junior center Kate Matthews and sophomore forward Cyndi Wilson scored eight points each for the Crusaders.