Junior Varsity Hoopsters Impress on the Court

While the varsity girls' basketball team continues to grab headlines, the junior varsity girls are making quite a bit of noise as well.

Already having won the regular season title, the Lady Cougars improved their overall record to 19-1 Thursday, defeating visiting Union 40-25 to advance to the semi-final round of the junior varsity tournament.

They struggled a bit in the first half, but quickly turned things around after halftime.

"After the first half, I feel the girls came out and played really, really well," said first year junior varsity coach Stacy Boff. "They played like they wanted it. That's the team that I've been coaching all season, the team that I coached in the second half."

Sophomore Victoria Vetter put up a game-high 19 points. Jackie Montegudo and Kristin VanBenschoten added eight points apiece in the win.

"In the beginning half, we were kind of nervous and thinking it was going to be an easy win," Vetter said. "But then, when we realized it was going to be tough, we got our act together in the second half and came in strong and did what we usually do during games and we won it."

"I'm so happy that we won," said Danielle Jakubik. "We really picked it up after halftime because we got realization about the game. It's a really good start for counties. I expect to win the whole thing."

Boff has passed along her experience to her young squad, having played and graduated from Villanova University. She is making her debut as a basketball coach, and obviously couldn't be happier with the results.

"The first couple of games of the season, I knew I had a special bunch of girls. They listen, they're very receptive," she said. "They have a great knowledge and want to know more of the game. I'm really happy with where we're at right now. I just see these girls improving more and more every day."

 One area that Coach Boff is happy with is their ability to listen, learn and adjust.

"If they're doing something wrong, I can tell them to do something and they'll do it right away," said Boff. "They want to play well and they want to win. That's what I really admire about them."

"I thought we would really have a good season," Jakubik said. "We have a lot of good players, everybody was ready to play. A lot of people came back from last year."

Cranford will play at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday in the semi-final round of the junior varsity tournament at the high school's Martin Gymnasium.

"The key is cooperating as a team and always supporting each other and making sure we don't lose our concentration," said Vetter. "We want to go all the way, as well as all the other players do."