It's a good thing the Cranford girls varsity basketball team didn't underestimate the 13th seed. Otherwise, they might have been watching the rest of the tournament from the sidelines.
Union gave the Lady Cougars all they could handle, and thanks in big part to solid rebounding, in-your-face defense, and key free throw shooting, Cranford advanced to the quarterfinal round of the Union County Tournament Monday night after their hard-fought 50-43 victory.
"We knew they were a good team," said Taylor D'Antico. "I personally did not think that they should be ranked 13th but we had to come out here strong. They were not going to give us an easy game."
"I knew Union was a very good team right off the bat," said Cranford head coach Jackie Huber. "They're very aggressive. They have very good players, good shooters. They also have a good inside-outside game. I think our defense was a little lax at points, but as usual, we pumped up our defense and pulled out the win."
As is often the case when tourney time rolls around, experience played its part, with seniors Jamie Webb, Taylor D'Antico and Danielle Gross taking the bull by the horns in turning the Lady Farmers away, especially down the stretch.
"We knew we had to do whatever we could as a team to get those points back and work hard because they're a good team," said D'Antico, who made five free throws and a pair of three-pointers in the win. "We just wanted to win this game so badly because it's the first round of the counties. Our goal is to make it to the finals and win."
"They always play with 110 percent. They have heart," said Huber. "When they want something, they're going to go out there and get it, so I knew that they could pull through at the end."
Webb led all scorers with 17 points (including nine free throws), Gross had 12 and D'Antico 11 as all came up big at the free throw line late in the game to steer their club from a seven-point third quarter deficit to a seven-point triumph. Eighteen of the Cougars' 50 points came from the charity stripe.
"We had shootaround this morning and we may have taken 40 or 50 free throws, so we do stress foul shots a lot," Huber said.
"Everyday at practice we take so many foul shots," D'Antico said. "Between every drill that we do, and everything that we do at practice we have to make 10 foul shots and then we move on, but we have to make those 10 foul shots and that's been helping us in these games."
Cranford led 13-10 after the first and 25-24 at halftime before Union took control for much of the third quarter en route to a 39-34 lead after the first 24 minutes.
"We played really well in the beginning, but we struggled in the third quarter," said Gross. "I think in the third quarter, they wanted to win more than us, but we regrouped as a team and said we wanted it more than them. We bounced back in the fourth quarter. We showed a lot of heart. We were determined to win because we really want to win the counties."
As has been the case all season, the Cougars would not be denied in the fourth stanza, holding their opponents to just four points while putting up 16 on their side of the scoreboard.
The victory allows them to advance to the round of eight, where they will face Oak Knoll on Thursday night at 6. The game will be played at Rahway High School.
"Oak Knoll is a very good team," Coach Huber said. "They're comparable to Union Catholic. They're a slower team, so if we move the ball up the floor and pound it inside, we should be all right."
"We're definitely going to have to play like we did in the fourth quarter this time," Gross said. "We have to play through the whole game and not take them for granted. We really have to try our hardest to beat them."
"We think we're going to have to come out here hard again," said D'Antico. "Every team is going to give us a good game and it's not going to be easy making it to the county finals, but we have the will to do it."
Cranford is also gearing up for the state tournament which begins on March 1. The Lady Cougars, who drew the third-seed in North Jersey, Section 2, Group 3, will host Carteret and their 1,000 point scorer Ivettelis Castro at a time yet to be determined.
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