BASKETBALL

Girls Basketball: Piscataway takes down Bishop Ahr

Harry Frezza
@thefrez56

EDISON - The Piscataway High School girls basketball team capped a 4-0 week Saturday afternoon with its biggest win of the season. 

The Chiefs (15-2) outlasted previously unbeaten Bishop Ahr, 52-49, in a Greater Middlesex Conference crossover.

Senior LaNiya Miller led Piscataway with 20 points and went 4-for-4 in free throws late in the game to keep her team in front. No other player broke double figures for the Chiefs, but seven other players had at least four points. Piscataway was 14-for-20 from the free throw line. 

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The free throw line is where Bishop Ahr (17-1) fell short. The Trojans usually make 70 percent of their free throws but finished 15-of-31 on Saturday, with some of those misses coming down the stretch.

 “We took a lot of free throws and we missed a lot, but it shouldn’t have come down to that,” Bishop Ahr coach Brittney Griffin said.

Bishop Ahr sophomore Emma Boslet, 6-for-8 from the line, scored a game-high 26 points with four 3-pointers to give her 50  for the season.

Bishop Ahr trailed 27-24 at half, but went on a 9-0 run to start the third quarter and led 33-27 with 5:16 left. Boslet hit on two drives, followed by a Morgan Maguire 3 and a basket by Megan Herka, but that’s as big as the lead would get.

Piscataway’s deep bench kept it from disappearing. 

“We are deep,” Piscataway coach Chris Puder said. “We played 10 or 11 girls in the first half. I have the luxury of doing that. Nobody plays as many as we do.”

By  the end of the third quarter, the Chiefs were up by five  Saniya Myers' two free throws and senior Baiylee Barnes’ 3-point play cut the deficit to 36-35 with 3:06 to go in the third. The Chiefs took a 37-36 lead on Miller's basket off an assist from freshman point guard Tori Fisher.

Boslet hit another drive to restore the Trojans' lead at 38-37 with 38 seconds left in the quarter, but two more free throws from Barnes and a putback from freshman Ariel Jenkins gave the Chiefs a 41-38 lead.

Miller’s basket on a Jenkins’ assist made it 43-38 with nine seconds left in the third.

“It wasn’t easy,” said Miller, who averaged 18 points a game before Saturday. “Games like that, that’s why you go into the gym every day. I knew what I had to do. I had to step up and knock those free throws down. I knew if I were to miss, Emma Boslet is a great player, and I knew she would come down and hit a 3. I was thinking like that.”

Boslet nearly pulled it off. Her 3-pointer cut the Chiefs’ lead to 50-49 with nine seconds left. Miller was immediately fouled and hit two free throws to give the Chiefs a 52-49 advantage. Boslet then missed a 3 and the Chiefs had their big win despite 24 turnovers.

“Piscataway is tough and big. We haven’t seen that kind of size,” said Griffin, whose team had scored at least 60 points in eight straight games. “We just didn’t take care of it today. But the best part about this is that we’re not done and it’s far from over. There are a lot more games to go. We still have our county tournament and we’ll make it count then.”

Jenkins and sophomore Amari Nolan had eight rebounds apiece, Barnes collected seven and Miller, and senior Yamirah Bennett had six apiece for Piscataway, which has been perfect since a 50-17 loss to Bridgewater-Raritan a week ago.