Girls Basketball: Somerville outlasts Bound Brook in back-and-forth affair

BOUND BROOK – After clinching its share of the Skyland Conference Valley Division title Tuesday, the Somerville High School girls basketball team is about to turn its attention to its next goal, the Somerset County Tournament, which is set to be seeded next week. Now, after dealing a country foe its first loss of the season, the Pioneers have sent a signal that they’re ready to show they’re going to be a contender in the SCT and beyond.

Senior Melody Van Ness tallied 27 points and classmate Nyasia Thomas added 10 of her 14 in the second half, adding five rebounds Thursday as Somerville went on the road and outlasted Bound Brook 52-48 in a back-and-forth affair.

“Every game means something,” said Somerville coach Matt Melesurgo, whose team improved to 12-4. “So even if it’s just a couple of power points or a (county) seeding, every game is going to have some kind of meaning, especially this part of the year. Every game is going to be a fight and a battle and you’re going to have to earn the win. I think that was the message tonight. Every game the rest of the way is going to have meaning and this was a huge way to start this next month off. Every possession, every loose ball, everybody was on the floor.”

RELATED: Thursday's girls basketball roundup

That was certainly the case Thursday, as both teams were at max effort from the opening whistle until the final buzzer, sacrificing their bodies, not avoiding contact and diving for every loose ball. The game went back and forth for the first three quarters, with neither team leading by more than five, before they headed to the fourth quarter knotted at 39-39.

That’s when Somerville finally found the run it had been looking for, beginning the period on a 9-0 run, sparked by five points from Van Ness and four from Thomas to create some breathing room.

“We’re a fast-break team. We get it and we go,” Thomas said. “I think playing together and sharing the ball, that’s what we did. Getting up the court and coming back on defense.”

“That was something that we waited for all night, that one jolt,” Melesurgo said. “We score in bunches. We put games together where it just looks easy, so it’s only a matter of time before that clicks. When you have great scorers in Mel (Van Ness) and Ny (Thomas), they find a way to get it done. And that just set the tone going forward.”

But that didn’t mean the game was over by any means, as Bound Brook fought back, as expected, getting 5-of-6 free throws from Janee’a Summers, who finished with 22 points and 14 rebounds, to close it to 48-44 with 2:32 remaining.

After a Meghan Douglass layup put Somerville back up by six, Jordan Todaro and Diamond Tucker each hit a free throw, before Summers stole the ball on the Somerville end of the court and drove the length to drop it in, closing the Crusaders advantage to 50-48 with 28 second left. Van Ness then converted a pair of free throws with 17.9 seconds remaining to provide the final margin.

While Somerville certainly put its hat in the ring for a Top 4 county seed and a double bye into the quarterfinals with the victory, the setback is Bound Brook’s first after a 17-0 start that included the Skyland Conference Mountain Division title. The Crusaders should still earn a high seed in the county tournament, as well – perhaps even a Top 4 -- but after proving their worth Thursday against a team outside their conference, the performance might prove even more valuable further down the road for a club looking to return to the state Group I final. It should also be a boost for Somerville, which fell a game short of the North 2 Group III championship last season.

“They just battle every possession,” said Melesurgo, who also watched Bound Brook get 11 points from Diamond Tucker. “You knew they want that huge win and that’s a great team. They fight. We talked about it before that game that every possession was going to be like that, and I think every game (the rest of the way) is going to be like that.”

Simeon Pincus can be reached atCNGirlsHoops@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @SimeonPincus and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SimeonPincusCN