http://cranford.patch.com/articles/cranford-edged-by-roselle-in-girls-basketball#c
Cranford Edged by Roselle in Girls Basketball
Miller has career-high 21-point effort.
It was a game of momentum swings, but when the final buzzer sounded, the Roselle Rams were able to hold off a furious comeback by the Cranford Cougars girls' basketball team for a 51-50 victory in Roselle Friday afternoon.
The Cougars had a chance to tie on the game's final shot, but the ball just skimmed the front of the rim as the buzzer sounded, snapping Cranford's five-game winning-streak.
"We're not happy that we lost, no one likes to lose, but, we are pleased with the way we played," said head coach Jackie Huber. "No one's down, no one's discouraged. You just take this and move on to the next one."
The loss may have dropped the Cougars record to 5-2, but they also saw the emergence of Morgan Miller, who lit up the Rams with a career-high 21-point effort.
"I've just been playing like I know I can play," said Miller. "Everybody contributes, it's not just me. It doesn't show up on the stats, but everybody had something they contributed to the team."
Miller led all scorers in the first half with 11 points, including several three-pointers, which kept her team in the game. The Lady Cougars and the home side battled back and forth in the first half, with the Rams holding a 30-26 lead at the break.
"I think definitely, three's are a shift in momentum," said Miller. "When you make them, everybody's on a high and it just picks up the energy."
"The past couple of games, Morgan has been struggling with her shot from falling, so she's been working the inside-out and that really seemed to come around for her," said Huber. "Yesterday, she had ten points, she started driving to the basket and her shots started falling. When she's in a rhythm, she's in a rhythm."
In the third quarter, Roselle turned up the heat, extending their lead at one point to 17, but the blue-and-gold decided they were better than that and turned up the pressure.
"I think we all picked it up at the end," said Miller. "We were all really aggressive, everybody wanted it, we all saw the same goal, but we should never put ourselves into a position where we have to dig ourselves out like that. We should always come out aggressive like we did at the end at the start of the game."
"They were really aggressive," said Jamie Webb. "Like I always say, when we play against teams like this, they just drive to the basket, they had a lot of three's too, we didn't get our hands up, that's where their lead came. At the end, we realized how much we wanted it. We were close."
Roselle was led by Jakoya Duggans, who had a team-high 21 points as the Rams improved to 5-2 on the season, their only losses coming at the hands of Roselle Catholic.
Senior Danielle Gross and freshman Jessica McCoy also had strong efforts, chipping in with 10 points each for the Lady Cougars.
"I'm very proud of them," said Huber. "There are team's that are very uptempo and very aggressive and we talk about not having that affect the way we play. We need to make sure we are controlling the game, and that's what we did in the fourth quarter. We would have liked to see that earlier in the game."
With less than two minutes to play, the Cougars had cut the deficit to one, Roselle hit a free throw and then managed to get the offensive rebound and pass the ball around to kill time.
After a missed free throw, Cranford hurried up the floor for one final chance, but the shot from the corner was just off the mark, a frustrating end to a wild game.
"It was a tough loss but a good loss," Miller said. "Everybody learned something from it and we all just have to be aggressive the entire game and not have any lapses."
The girls' are off until Tuesday, when they are back in action versus rival Westfield at 7:30 p.m. Huber is concerned, but confident about the matchup.
"They have Diana Venezia, who is a phenomenal forward," Huber said. "She's going to a school in North Carolina to play. They also have some really quick guards, so the matchup is pretty good."
And then there's the top team in the county, Roselle Catholic, slated for Saturday January 16.
"The coach was telling us how Roselle Catholic was here watching us," said Webb. "They saw us down by 17 and come back in the fourth quarter. She heard that they're scared and I said 'are you sure about that, because I wouldn't be if I were watching that.' They've been to three of our games. Maybe they are scared, I hope so. We gave them their first loss last year."
Cranford will face the Lions next Saturday at Noon at Roselle Catholic.
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