Records Don't Matter as Bridgewater Defeats Watchung

Ranking? Records? According to Bridgewater girls basketball head coach Dorcas Miller, at this time of the year you can throw that all out the window as her team took down Watchung 52-42 on Saturday in the quarterfinal round of the Somerset County Tournament.

“I told the girls when its tournament time, that your record doesn’t matter,” said the Panthers head coach. “This is March Madness in February, and that’s how we have to play. It’s 5 against 5. This is a hostile environment with the crowd right on top of you.” 

Bridgewater was able to utilize its full court pressure to create more offensive opportunities, some of them being immediate, high quality looks at the hoop.

“We do that in practice everyday,” said senior guard forward Jessica Venturelli. “We go hard everyday in practice and we’ve been doing that since I was a freshman. We always have the mentality that we got to beat teams up, that we’re going to play our game and not let them play their game. That’s what we did today.”

And when they didn’t have fast breaks off turnovers, Bridgewater created open looks themselves, most of which found the bottom of the cup.

“In practice yesterday, we did a lot of shooting," Venturelli said. "We were well prepared for this game."

Deadlocked 4-4 in the first quarter after three minutes of play, Robin O’Dell converted on a free throw and Denisha Petty-Evans knocked down a three to make it an 8-4 lead for Bridgewater a little more than 5 minutes in.

With Watchung battling back to 10-10, the Panthers got two key scores before the quarter ended. Petty-Evans converted a layup with a minute to go and Hannah Brophy snuck in a layup right before the buzzer sounded, making it a 14-10 lead for Bridgewater at the end of one.

In the middle of the first quarter, Miller noticed something about Watchung’s play and called a timeout to talk to her team.

“They weren’t playing us in the high post,” said Miller. “And so we had to adjust, we have to see the floor. We were running our plays and [our forwards] were so wide open. Once I called the timeout, we made 12 shots right from the top of the key.”

In the second quarter, Bridgewater dominated at both ends of the floor. The Panthers defense came up huge, as the team only yielded three field goals to Watchung over the eight minutes. 

Holding a 16-12 lead just a minute into the period, Bridgewater got a layup from Petty-Evans and then, just a few seconds later, Venturelli banged home a three-pointer, quickly putting Bridgewater up 21-14 after a minute and a half of action in the second. 

Leading 22-16 with just under five minutes left, Bridgewater ended the half in a flourish. The Panthers went on an 8-0 run as O’Dell connected on two jumpers, as did Venturelli, to go with a layup from Petty-Evans, and making it 30-16 at the half. 

“We did catch them off guard," Miller said. "We run it [full court pressure] off and on. At one point they were playing catch with us. They weren’t getting the ball past half court. When you turn the ball over, the last thing you want to do is play another 10 seconds of defense. We took some of their players out of the game, which we didn’t do last time.” 

Bridgewater was more than content to trade baskets with Watchung in the third quarter, as the Panthers were outscored by a 9-7 mark. After Petty-Evans opened up the scoring with a layup, the Warriors went on 5-0 and 4-0 runs outside of a free throw by Petty-Evans. 

With Bridgewater up just 9, the team closed out the quarter in huge fashion as Venturelli hit a three-pointer with just 40 seconds left, making the Bridgewater lead 12 points with just eight minutes to go. 

Free throws keyed Bridgewater in the fourth quarter as the team went 11 of 16 from the charity stripe. 

Venturelli connected on a three-pointer just seconds into the fourth quarter, extending the Panther lead to 15. 

Watchung then got as close as nine with 53 seconds to go. 

But over the next 16 seconds, Petty-Evans, O’Dell and Venturelli went 6-6 from the line to help seal the deal for the Panthers, winning the game 52-42 and moving on to the semifinals of the Somerset County Tournament.

Bridgewater was led by Venturelli and Petty-Evans, who both pumped in 19 points. O’Dell contributed 10, while Julia Venturelli and Hannah Brophy chipped in with two each. 

For Bridgewater, this was a big win after falling to Watchung by 13 points at home just over three weeks ago.

“We lost to them at home last time and we weren’t as good as we could have been," said senior forward O'Dell. "We wanted to show we can win and play with anyone in the county."

“We came in here with a fire, it was in their eyes," Miller added. "The minute that ball went up, we were ready to go. We were organized. We knew exactly when to penetrate and when to take shots. We match up very well head to head.”

Now Bridgewater will look forward to next Saturday when the team will play in the semifinals of the county tournament. Along with some other regular season games and States in a few weeks, Miller won’t change her mentality coming into any of those games.

“It doesn’t matter your record on Saturdays," she said. "You have to play. You have to play big and you have to fight defensively."

“We played an all around solid game," she added. "I’m proud of my girls.”