Girls Basketball: Piscataway tops Sayreville in GMCT quarterfinals

NEW BRUNSWICK - The Piscataway High School girls basketball team saw a much different Sayreville team on Saturday than the one the Chiefs lost to in last season’s Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament semifinals. 

Though the defending tournament champion Bombers are significantly younger than a year ago and carried the 10 seed, second-seeded Piscataway expected nothing less than a serious challenge.

Which is what Piscataway got, but unlike last year’s semifinals, it was the Chiefs who advanced with a 51-46 quarterfinal triumph at New Brunswick. Piscataway will face third-seeded Bishop Ahr in the semifinals at 5 p.m. on Monday at Spotswood. 

The Chiefs (19-4) beat Bishop Ahr 52-49 on Jan. 26 in Edison, handing the Trojans (22-3) their first loss of the season after a 17-0 start. Bishop Ahr beat No. 6 J.P. Stevens 77-50 on Saturday to move into the semifinals.

“We knew they were scrappy. They play all the way until the end, they play every single minute and pressed all the time,” Piscataway coach Chris Puder said of Sayreville.

A rematch wouldn’t have happened without Piscataway overcoming the relentless Bombers (15-9).

“I told these girls all the time that while we got the 10th seed, I didn’t feel like we were a 10th seed,” said Sayreville coach Janet Cook, whose team lost all of its starters from last season’s team that won county and Central Group IV titles. “We were second place in the (GMC) White Division (to Bishop Ahr), nobody expected a lot out of us this year but I knew what we had coming in and knew their abilities.”

Piscataway has a lot of ability and also plenty of depth. Senior guard LaNiyah Miller and freshman forward Ariel Jenkins are recognized as the team standouts, but Saturday’s first half belonged to junior forward Saniya Myers. She scored 12 first half points to help keep the Chiefs in front.

“Myers killed us today,” Cook said.

A put back from Myers tied the game 27-27 with 1:34 left in the first half before Miller’s buzzer-beating 3 gave the Chiefs a 30-27 intermission lead. A basket from Miller had given the Chiefs a 14-12 lead after the first quarter.

Myers finished with a team-leading 14 points and 15 rebounds. Miller had 11 points and senior guard Brooke Moll had nine points with a couple of 3-pointers that helped stretch the Bomber defense.

But it was Myers’ game.

“She played great and we have to continue to do that,” Puder said of Myers.

Piscataway’s lead stretched to its biggest at 39-29 on a Miller basket with 1:12 to go in the third, but Sayreville scored the next five points to close the third quarter. A Serina Townes bucket from the foul line with 4:49 left in regulation cut the Chiefs’ lead to 41-40, but that was followed by back-to-back put backs by Jenkins and Miller’s 1-of-2 from the foul line to give the Chiefs a 46-40 lead with 2:32 left in regulation.

“When we needed (Jenkins) the most she came through,” Puder said.

Jenkins missed two put backs before hitting her third on her second basket.

“We knew we had an advantage inside and tried to take advantage of that,” Puder said. “It was contrasting styles. We are long so we have to move on the pass and we did a better job of that in the second half.”

That third quarter likely cost Sayreville the game.

“In the third quarter we came out a little bit flat and that hurt us big time when we got down 10, but (Sayreville) showed great fight in coming back,” Cook said.

The Bombers simply couldn’t overcome the Chiefs’ clear size advantage, but Piscataway hurt itself, shooting just 10-of-21 from the free throw line.

“We definitely lack the size in the post, so we knew it’d be a challenge for us today and we knew we’d have to work really hard on boxing out,” Cook said. “They beat our box outs and knocked down some big shots toward the end.”

Junior guard Lyssandra Delacosta had a game-high 19 points and sophomore guard Jackie Ventricelli finished with 11 points for the Bombers.