Senior Night for Lady Lancers

The Mendham girls basketball team may have handily beat Livingston on Monday by a score of 51-32, but fans were still happy with the game.  Afterall, it was Senior Night for the Lady Lancers and Becky Knopf, Melissa Pence, Natalie Cohen and Jamie Hawkins were honored in front of a home crowd.

For the seniors who've played together for a few seasons, this year was special.

"I think it is winning more games than any other season that we have played together," said Hawkins, who noted that although they lost last night's game (record now stands at 5-16), this season has been positive.  For example, the team recently beat Newark's Arts High, the first time the Lady Lancers have done so.

Of course,  last night was also bittersweet.

"It is very said that we will not be together again," said Pence.

Her teammate Cohen remembers that in the preseason, after the team played a scrimmage, they had a moving talk with their head coach, Patty Kaes.

"It was our third scrimmage of the season against Newark Academy," said Cohen. "And our coach talked to us, motivating us and telling us that this will be the last year that you will be playing high school basketball together. That really put it in perspective."

As they've done all season, the girls tried hard last night. But Mendham  put on a full-court press that Livingston's offense could not handle. The Lady Lancers turned over the ball 19 times in the first half.

Overall, Cohen led the way offensively with 10 points while Hawkins added 6 points and Knopf tallied four points.   Pence also had a bucket in the second quarter.

But the Lady Lancers were no match for a very good and deep Mendham team that was led by Paige Russell and Crysta Donadson, who each had nine points.

Livingston actually turned over the ball five times in the first two minutes, but rebounded and was down only by one point, 7-6, after a Knopf basket when she broke the press with a little less than three minutes in the first quarter.

But Mendham's Paige Russell struck back with a couple of baskets and her team's full-court press became effective again. Mendham went on a 10-0 run to end the first quarter and push the Lady Lancers back further, 17-6.

Mendham continued the full court press to start the second quarter; the result was a 7-3 run that put the Lady Lancers behind 24-9 with a little more than three minutes in the first half. The only bucket in that time period for Livingston was a three-pointer from Carly LaGrotta.  Mendham, though, went up by 20 at halftime, 34-14.

In the second half Livingston did not see a full-court press, but a half-court trap that they also had trouble handling. Mendham built a 47-20 lead at the end of the third quarter.  The Lady Lancers, though, came back with back-to-back baskets from Hawkins.

With a couple of minutes left in the game, Livingston head coach Kaes took out her seniors, who received applause. Livingston and its seniors will have a shot at ending on a high note in their last two games.  The team plays West Side on Tuesday at 4 p.m. and Science Park on Thursday at 4 p.m.