Morristown Girls Win Big in First Basketball Game of the Season

Lynne Cinella got her first win as head coach of girls' basketball and she did it in dramatic fashion with the help of her resilient team. The Lady Colonials were able to battle through adversity and trump Mendham at Mendham High School, 41-33 on Fri., Dec. 17.

For Coach Cinella and the Colonials, expectations were neither high nor low;  the team wasn't on the radar to make an immediate impact this season. Cinella, who is still testing the waters and trying out different strategies, was still able to build chemistry on the team. The bond was apparent in the Colonials' playoff-like win on Friday.

"We've had a couple of scrimmages that helped me see how the team performs. We are still a young team and we are currently battling through injuries and I hope we can battle through them today" said Cinella before the game. Despite playing with out senior Caitlin Horan, who is out with an ankle injury, the team was still able to rally and play at a high level in her absence.

The Colonials started off strong on defense and, despite a low-scoring first quarter, were still able to maintain the lead against a struggling Mendham team. The first quarter ended with the score of 9-4, Morristown.

Mendham was able to get back in the game in the second quarter, initiating a full-court press that seemed to catch Morristown off-guard. The Mendham Lady Minutemen, who scored most of their points off turnovers in the first half, were able to take advantage of Morristown's mistakes and foul troubles. Mendham led at the half, 21-17.

Morristown came out focused in the third quarter, with fewer mistakes and more polish on both offense and defense. Freshman Gabby Foster came off of the bench to tie the game at twenty-nine in the last seconds of the third quarter with her only points of the game.

After successfully breaking Mendham's full court press attempts and cutting down drastically on fouls, Morristown took the lead in the beginning of the fourth quarter. The big three-point shot by sophomore point guard Jordan Betlow (5 points) instantly silenced the Mendham fans and caused an uproar among the Morristown faithful.

Things only got better for Morristown as senior Grace Kolb (7 points, 4 rebounds) came up with a big steal off a Mendham inbound pass attempt and converted into points. The game eventually got out-of-reach for Mendham as Morristown made some last minute free throws to finish off the game in dramatic fashion, 41-33.

The play of Junior Jen Donlin was phenomenal all night. She was the team's leading scorer with 14 points, most in the first half, where she accounted for eight of the team's seventeen points. Senior Betsey Baehler was big off the bench, with tight defense and eight much-needed points.

When asked about the play of Donlin, Cinella responded, "Amazing. She was in-bounding the ball often against the press and being strong–aside from getting fourteen points which was huge. She played extremely well, even off the ball for us."

The team was all smiles after the game and so was Coach Cinella, who picked up a big first win away from the comforts of home court. Cinella spoke about what she told the girls in the locker room after the first half to get them back into the game mentally.

"Going into the half I told the girls that this game was all about us. It was about our ability to be smart and not have stupid fouls, especially in key spots," she said. "We were in serious foul trouble. Mentally we came back in the second half and they played really well to keep themselves in the game."

 The full court press, which seemed to have the Colonials backed into a corner, was overcome due to great communication by Cinella and the team. "The press caught us off-guard but the more they saw the press, the more comfortable we got with it. They realized that they could break it and they could handle it and when we did, we were able to come up with big points from it."

The long hours and difficult practices paid off for the Colonials and Cinella who said, "It's not easy to work really hard every day and the best way to reward an athlete is with wins, so our win today really helps us."

The Colonials take a holiday break but come back to play their home opener against Morris Knolls High School on Thursday, Jan. 6 at 7 p.m.