Cranford Girls Basketball Defeats Dayton, Moves On to County Final

There was a lot of tension in the air on Monday night when the Cranford Cougars took the court against the Dayton Bulldogs in the semifinal round of the Union County Basketball Tournament.  It was the fourth time the two teams had met in a one-year period.  Their first meeting was last season in quarterfinals of the same tournament, when the 12th seeded Bulldogs upset the 4th seeded Cougars to knock them from the field.  Their second meeting was an early-season match up in which Dayton again got the best of Cranford, handing the Cougars their first loss of the season.  Cranford handily defeated Dayton the third time around in their regular season rematch, but the question remained whether the 5th seeded Bulldogs would be able to pull off another upset over the 2nd seeded Cougars.

The Cougars looked to grab momentum early, with Junior forward Kaitlin McGovern finding Jenna Goeller on the arc off of the opening tip.  Goeller who has been red hot for the Cougars, effortlessly sank the long range shot to put Cranford up 3-0.  Dayton came right back, however, with Nikki Athan dropping in three of her own from the left side.  The Bulldogs got on the board again next when Senior Anna Lies drew the attention of Cranford’s defense, then found Heather Fritzen under the basket for two.  On the opposite side of the court, sophomore Mairead McKeary added one to Cranford’s tally from the charity stripe after being fouled in the lane.  Then, Junior Jess McCoy hit a midrange jumper off of an assist by Goeller to give Cranford a 6-5 lead.  A block by McGovern ended Dayton’s next possession and Jess McCoy in transition  found Goeller on the left corner to add three more to Cranford’s lead.

After a Dayton timeout, Athan found Fritzen under the rim to cut the Cranford lead back to two, but a quick hit from just inside the arc by McCoy, off of a pass from Miller put Cranford up 11-7.  After Anna Lies converted one of two from the line, Heather Fritzen grabbed her own rebound off a blocked shot by McCoy, and was able to get the putback to bring the score to 11-10.  Cranford added another three when McCoy took a pass from Goeller and knocked down a trey.  Emily McDonald responded for Dayton by hitting a three of her own from the left corner to close out the scoring for the period with Cranford leading 14-13.

Cranford got on the board first in the second quarter when Mairead McKeary made three out of four attempts from the line after being fouled on consecutive possessions.  Heather Fritzen then took her turn at the line for Dayton and sank both freebies.  Morgan Miller took a steal coast-to-coast to add two of her own for the Cougars.  After a steal by McCoy, McKeary found Miller in transition for a pull up trey and Cranford had jumped out to a 22-15 lead with five minutes remaining as Dayton called a timeout.

Nikki Athan struck next, ducking through two Cranford defenders to get to the basket for two.  Emily MacDonnell followed that with two of her own, but missed the bonus, to bring the score to 22-19.  After grabbing a rebound, Miller pushed the ball up court and found McKeary on the run for two. Miller recorded another assist on the next possession, finding Kaitlin McGovern in the paint for a layup.  Miller kept pushing the pace, kicking a rebound out to McCoy who found Goeller racing for the rim for another two for Cranford, giving the Cougars a 28-19 lead going into the locker room at the half.

Opening the second quarter, Dayton patiently ran their first possession, looking for a chink in the Cranford defense, but were unable to get a shot to fall.  Cranford came up the court and got a quick two from McCoy who took a pass from McKeary for a short jumper.  Dayton struck back on the next possession with a three pointer from Jen Kuczynski.  McKeary then earned a trip to the line.  After sinking the first shot, she rimmed out the second, but McCoy was able to grab the rebound and sink a reverse layup.  McCoy grabbed a loose ball on the next possession, kicked it up to Goeller, who found Miller on the right side for three points.  Dayton called a timeout with Cranford up 36-22 with six minutes left in the third quarter.

Out of the timeout, Nikki Athan made good on two freebies, and both team exchanged a couple of nonproductive trips up the court before McCoy swiped a ball and took it the distance for two.  The next trip up, Miller sank a long-range jumper off an assist from McCoy.  Jen Kuczynski answered for Dayton making both shots from the line after being fouled going to the hoop.
After a blocked shot by McKeary, Miller grabbed the rebound and launched a full court pass to McCoy streaking for the basket and another two for Cranford.  Nikki Athan gave Dayton two more from the charity stripe and Kaitlin McGovern gave Cranford one of their own on the other end.  McGovern also scored the next two points off of a feed from Miller.  Kuczynski answered again for Dayton, arcing a beautiful trey from the left side.  Cranford called a timeout leading 46-30 with a bit over a minute left in the quarter.  Cranford looked to slow things down offensively and ride out the quarter, but were unable to get a shot to fall.  With mere seconds on the clock, Dayton’s Emily MacDonnell inbounded the ball to Heather Fritzen on the corner and exploded towards the basket.  Fritzen’s pass into the paint found MacDonnell for an uncontested layup on a beautifully designed play.  Cranford took a 46-32 lead to the bench at the end of the third.

Cranford opened the final quarter with Morgan Miller taking the inbounds pass and finding McCoy on the left side for three points.  After a pair of successive Dayton shots were blocked by Miller and McCoy, Kaitlin McGovern found McCoy under the basket for another two points.  Miller struck again on the Bulldog’s next possession, grabbing her 10th rebound of the game and finding McKeary streaking for the basket for two.  Kuczynski added two for Dayton after grabbing her own rebound off of a McGovern blocked shot and recording the putback.  Jenna Goeller hit for three for Cranford after taking a pass from McGovern.  Anna Lies fought her way into the paint and finished for two for the Bulldogs, followed by Jen Kuczynski, who grabbed a rebound and put back another two.  Dayton called a timeout down 56-38 halfway through the fourth quarter.

Cranford looked like they were trying to slow things down and run the clock out, but Dayton had other ideas.  Ricci Rajoppi sank one of two from the line for Dayton out of the timeout.  Anna Lies added two off of a hard drive through the lane.  Nikki Athan swiped a ball and was unable to finish the shot, but Emily MacDonnell grabbed the rebound and put it in for two.  A steal by MacDonnell off the resulting inbounds passed to Kuczynski who hit for three, and the Cranford lead was down to ten.  The Cougars called timeout with 2 minutes remaining and a 56-46 lead to talk things over.

On the first trip up the court, Goeller found McGovern under the rim for two, then Miller found McCoy on the left side for two more.  Anna Lies got the harm on the other end and sank both freebies for Dayton but Cranford came right back with a fast break by McKeary off of a Miller pass.  Cranford was able to run the rest of the clock out and finished the game with a 62-48 victory.

For the Cougars, Senior Morgan Miller scored a double-double for the second consecutive game, tallying 11 points and 10 rebounds, and also adding 8 assists as she set the pace of the game for Cranford.  Jess McCoy also recorded a double-double, connecting for 22 points and 10 rebounds, along with four blocks and three steals.  Jenna Goeller added 11 points to go with  four assists and two blocked shots, and Mairead McKeary scored 11 to go along with another outstanding defensive effort against one of the top point guards in the county in Anna Lies.  Kaitlin McGovern rounded out the scoring for Cranford adding 7 points, but was dominant in the paint for the Cougars, tallying 10 rebounds, 6 blocks and numerous deflections.

PTS

RBD

AST

STL

BLK

2PM

3PM

FTM

11

10

8

1

2

1

3

0

11

0

4

1

2

1

3

0

22

10

3

3

4

8

2

0

 7

10

2

0

6

3

0

1

11

3

1

1

1

3

0

5