Murphy Nets Her 1,000th Point in Group Championship Loss

TOMS RIVER — The preseason prognosticators named the Shabazz High School girls basketball team No. 1 in The Star Ledger's Top 20 at the beginning of the season.

At the end of the year, it looks as if they may have made the right decision.

Shabazz stopped the Chatham Lady Cougars, 53-30, in the at NJSIAA Group 2 state final at the Ritacco Center on Sunday afternoon.

But all was not lost in this one for the Lady Cougars and senior forward Caroline Murphy, though. Murphy scored the 1,000th point of her career in the game's final minute, putting an end to her stellar Chatham career.

"We prepared and competed in this game like we expected to win. The game plan was simple, we wanted to make them beat us from the outside. And I'm not convinced that they beat us from the outside," an emotional Chatham Head Coach Joe Gaba said after the game. "Where they beat us was definitely on our defensive glass. I think if we could have rebounded better, then I think the outcome could have been better than what it was."

It was fairly clear that Chatham was outmatched in this one as Shabazz was relentless inside, terrorizing the offensive and defensive glass and limiting Chatham's chances for quality shots.

But despite struggling inside and being outscored in each quarter, Chatham found a way to stay within striking distance going into halftime, 24-16, mostly due to a 9-3 run in the second quarter.

That run, which showed a more confident and capable Chatham team than was seen throughout the rest of the game, was keyed by a three-pointer by sophomore guard Amanda Berntsen with 3:03 remaining in the second quarter. That three represented Chatham's first points of the quarter.

While Chatham looked to feed off of its offensive outburst at the end of the half, the second half was not as kind to the Lady Cougars. Shabazz went right back to work, dominating the offensive boards and taking advantage of Chatham's numerous turnovers.

Even when Chatham was able to secure a rebound, they would turn the ball over almost automatically, leading to more fast break points for Shabazz.

With a 26-18 lead in the third quarter, Shabazz took advantage of the opportunities Chatham gave them.

Led by sophomore guard Aliyyah Handford, who scored 18 points and was named Shabazz's Most Valuable Player, the team went on a 12-4 run to end the quarter to make the score 38-22, taking most of the wind out of the Chatham sails.

"We had a serious case of the drops," Gaba said. "We switched our defense to a trap at the beginning of the fourth quarter and we got three straight turnovers off of it and came up empty handed three straight times. And it was because of our inability to hang onto the ball."

It didn't get any better for Chatham in the fourth quarter, though, as the Shabazz press defense held the Lady Cougars to only two points for the first six and half minutes of the quarter.

"They had a lot of breakaway layups so that was just piling up those easy points," said Berntsen, who finished with 11 points and was named Chatham's Most Valuable Player. "Turnovers and their quickness. They got up the floor quickly and had good passes."

Shabazz would finish the quarter with 15 points and would walk away with the 53-30 win.

"They were great," Shabazz Head Coach Vanessa Watson said after the win. "[Senior Caroline Murphy] was so tough. We just wanted to make her work, and we did. And Amanda Berntsen has such a great shot. I told the team, if you give here a little space, she's going to score. And of course, every time we did, she'd score. What a shooter."

With less than a minute remaining in the fourth quarter, Murphy was fouled as she drove to the hoop. With tears in her eyes, she set up to take her two foul shots.

She wasn't hurt—she was just overtaken by emotion at the thought of scoring her 1,000 point as a member of the Chatham basketball team. And the tears didn't stop her from reaching the milestone as she hit her free throws and the Chatham bench stood and cheered.

"An ocean of emotion," Murphy said after the game. "Not many people [score 1,000 points] and it's a big highlight in my career. I'm just so happy that I was able to do this in the last game against the No. 1 ranked team in the state. It's just a good feeling."

It was such a good feeling that the entire Chatham bench rushed the floor to celebrate at midcourt with Murphy, who finished with 15 points and nine rebounds, after the final buzzer sounded.

The team looked as if it had just won the game.