Girls Basketball: Bridgewater-Raritan overcomes slow start, late rally to top Watchung Hills in opener
BRIDGEWATER – Both teams were in the same boat headed into Friday night’s season opener after heavy graduation losses and with an air of uncertainty entering the new campaign. And while each team figured to be a good measuring stick for the other, it was the Bridgewater-Raritan High School girls basketball team that proved to have a better sense of its identity.
Junior Keiko Fox led the way for the Panthers, helping them erase an early 10-point deficit by scoring 18 of her game-high 28 points in the first quarter, adding four momentum-grabbing buckets from beyond the 3-point arc, as Bridgewater-Raritan shook off the early adversity and held off a late run, scoring a 71-61 victory over Watchung Hills.
“We got a nice test tonight against Watchung Hills,” said BR coach Dorcas Miller, whose club also got 10 points from Claire Liston. “They’re a very good team, they have a strong leader in (Julia) Cunningham, and I think we stayed strong. Even when they got the momentum, we called timeout, slowed it down a little bit, and our strength really showed. These girls worked hard in the offseason and they really wanted to prove something tonight on their home court.
“When it’s the first game you have jitters. And I think once we settled down and realized they were in the 1-3-1, which we practiced, we just had to knock down shots. It was a team effort. They went out there played as a team.”
“We definitely are a team of runs,” said Fox, who knocked down four first-quarter field goals, including two from beyond the arc after her team trailed 11-1 midway through the opening period. “We tend to go down in the first and third quarters a little bit, so it’s really important that when we do go down, we come work back up. It worked out well. People were making shots and really good passes.”
Watchung Hills, which got 27 points and nine rebounds from Cunningham, and 11 points and eight boards from Jess Santo, did its best to stay with the surging Panthers, who led 35-32 by halftime, but really turned up the pressure in the third quarter, aided by the Warriors shooting 2-for-11 from the field and committing seven turnovers.
Bridgewater-Raritan led 56-46 headed to the fourth quarter and by 12 early in the final period, but Watchung Hills wasn’t done, despite losing senior Emma Zucker to a serious-looking knee injury, she being the lone 12th grader in the regular rotation for an already extremely young club.
Led by 11 fourth-quarter points from Cunningham, the Warriors got to within 60-58 with 2:45 left in regulation, but B-R held strong, hitting 9-of-10 free throws in the final 2:37 to put it away.
“Everyday we shoot a ton of free throws,” said Fox, who connected on 5-of-6 fourth-quarter attempts from the line. “And we record them, to make sure that we’re improving. It’s really paying off.”
“I’m so proud of them for not putting their heads down,” Miller said. “Meghan Ball fouled out, they went on a run, cut the game down to two points, but they never put their heads down. That’s something we haven’t seen in the last year or two, but we were able to go for it this year and it’s a great start.”
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For Watchung Hills, the most concerning thing was surrendering 71 points, a shock to the system of a club that allowed just 47 points per game last season. And with the possible long-term loss of Zucker, an already young team just got younger.
“We had higher expectations,” Watchung Hlls coach Reese Kirchofer said. “I didn’t think we’d give up that many points in a game, so, clearly, that’s what we’ll be working on next. Offensively, we’ve got a good player who is a good leader on the floor (in three-year starting junior Cunningham), but there are kids that are a little green out there and we’re going to figure out a way to get them more confidence and more involved.”
Simeon Pincus can be reached atCNGirlsHoops@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @SimeonPincus and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SimeonPincusCN
