Lady Highlanders Basketball Pulls Away in Fourth, Beats Whippany Park

The West Morris Central girls varsity basketball team will be moving on to the final four of the Morris County Tournament after pulling away in the fourth quarter for a 55-40 victory over Whippany Park.

 “This game was very difficult, very troublesome for me because we don’t match up well with them. We’re not a particularly quick team, but we’re a very tall team, so I was afraid of their three-point shooting," said Highlanders’ head coach Fran Gavin. “I thought it was a bad matchup for us, but I’m sure Tom Wilson on the other side thought we were a really bad matchup for them, because we are taller than them.”

The Lady Highlanders got a boost from forward Shayna Ericksen, who carried West Morris through the first three quarters of the game and finished with 18 rebounds and a career-high 34 points.

Even after scoring more than 60 percent of West Morris’ points, Ericksen was quick to give credit to her teammates following the win.

“It’s not all me. It’s my team. They’re rebounding, they’re getting up the court quickly. Their passes are what help me get the ball,” said Ericksen. “They push me; I want to do good for my team, so they definitely had my back and they pushed me. Even though, on the scoreboard, I might have the most points, it does not reflect on our team at all.”

Gavin knew that, against a smaller, quicker opponent like Whippany Park, Ericksen was going to have to use her height as an advantage.

“They don’t really have anybody that’s as strong as Shayna. If you have an advantage, you’ve got to play it, and that was the gameplan,” said Gavin. “She’s a rock-solid basketball player.”

After leading 21-18 at the half, West Morris fell behind Whippany Park momentarily when a third quarter three-pointer put the Wildcats up 28-26.

From there, sound defense and rebounding sparked the Lady Highlanders, who were again leading by three at the end of the third quarter. In the fourth, West Morris outscored the Wildcats 20-8, giving them an insurmountable lead.

Defensively, West Morris also benefitted from a switch of assignments in the second quarter. West Morris put Autumn Webb on the Wildcats’ Lauren O’Connor, and had Carly Shello on Whippany Park’s sharp-shooting Olivia Dudley.

Although Dudley, who finished with 17 points, can cause match-up problems for opponents, Shello was able to keep her in check during key moments, limiting her shot opportunities.

“I did [feel added responsibility], and that made me very nervous," said Shello. “I like to think I work well under pressure, and I’ve been guarding a lot of good shooters this year.”

Although it took West Morris a while to jump out to a large lead against the Wildcats, they might be able to use their early struggles as a lesson when they travel to Fairleigh Dickinson University's Florham Park Campus to take on top-ranked Morris Catholic in Friday’s semi-final matchup.

“I think what we learned from this game is that we need to start out strong from the beginning and we can’t let up,” said Shello.

Gavin added, “Every time you go out on the floor, you need to be able to get better as a team. Today, because we had very different player personnel rotations, I think that we realized that we can to different things under different sets of circumstances. I think we did grow as a team, and I’d like to take that going forward.”