Another solid effort equals another victory, as the Cranford girls varsity basketball team defeated host Arthur L. Johnson High School Friday night 62-51 in Clark behind Jamie Webb's team-leading 15 point effort.
The victory improves Cranford's overall mark to 11-2 and moves them closer to a top-three seed in the upcoming Union County Tournament.
The game was even at nine-all with the Lady Cougars perhaps playing their most consistent 32 minutes of the season so far.. Cranford led 19-14 after the first quarter, 35-27 at halftime and 47-40 after three before pulling away to the 11 point triumph.
"We've been struggling this season being consistent throughout the entire game," said Cranford head coach Jackie Huber. "We've started off slow and ended really hard and fast and winning games in the fourth quarter. We just talked and said that this is the first game in a long time where we were very consistent from start to finish."
"I thought as a team, we played 110 percent the entire game," said senior Taylor D'Antico, who finished with 12 points. "We played from the very first quarter and every quarter the exact same way. We kept putting pressure on them and worked hard the whole time."
"We have three great freshmen," said senior Danielle Gross. "At the beginning of the season they were a little nervous and now they're so comfortable with us and we're all playing as a team, we're so used to each other. We play great in practice together, so we're just all used to each other."
What is also becoming impressive about Cranford, is how their offense is able to spread the wealth when it come to scoring. That will only make it more difficult for opposing defenses to keep the Cougars in check.
Morgan Miller scored 13 points, Gross added 8, Jess McCoy and Sara Gugliucci had five each and Kate McGovern added four to round out the scoring.
"It was extremely balanced," added Huber. "We had some inside, outside game, Morgan hit three three-pointers in the first half, Taylor hit two three's. We were really on our game. We played like a team."
"Our whole team is really well-rounded," said D'Antico. "A lot of people on our team are very good shooters and some are better at layups, taking inside shots, outside, threes. It's really balanced throughout the whole team. Everyone can take a shot from pretty much anywhere."
To the Lady Crusaders credit, they weren't going to be pushed around on their home floor. Cranford had defeated them earlier in the season, but Coach Huber knew her opponent wasn't going to give an inch.
"Johnson is comparable to us," Huber said. "They're a quick team, they have very good players. We came into this game knowing they would put up a fight and that we'd have to work really hard to get a win."
Next week, Cranford has another important week with Hillside on Tuesday, Union Catholic Thursday and Roselle on Friday.
"It should be a tough week for us," Huber said. "We beat Hillside by 10 the first time. They're very aggressive. We're playing on their floor, which is a little bigger, more wide open than ours. It should be a good game if we play the way we played today."
As for the county tournament, the seeding committee will convene during the second week in February, an exciting time if you're a Lady Cougars fan.
"Summit yesterday lost to Linden, which might push us up to the three (seed). It would be nice to be either be two or one going into the county tournament."
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