SP-F Girls Basketball: A Look Ahead to Next Season

This year’s girls’ basketball Union County Tournament champion, repeat winner Roselle Catholic, went 7-17 three years ago, with freshmen who cut their teeth on the varsity level for the first time in 2007 helping lead the Lions to UCT titles in 2009 and 2010.

This year’s Scotch Plains-Fanwood squad that finished 6-17 consisted of five freshmen, one sophomore and five juniors.

One player – junior Becca Kreyer – literally cut her teeth in a conference game at Linden, but came back to play with even more gusto the rest of the way.

Scotch Plains can look at what Roselle Catholic went through three years ago and determine what it took for the Lions to be as good as they were last year and this year after showing vast improvement two seasons ago.

Although the Raiders have all 11 varsity players eligible to return for the 2010-2011 season, sometimes just having players back is not good enough.

Whether Scotch Plains will be ready to compete at a much higher level come December depends on how those players work on their games and progress during the off-season.

“Although we will have leadership and maturity, the girls need to focus right now and do what’s necessary in the off-season to be ready to go by November,” first-year head coach Jennifer Ryan said.

Ryan is not used to being around teams that finish under .500. When she starred at Plainfield before graduating in 1984, the Cardinals won the UCT all four years she was there. Ryan then played on successful teams at Pace University.

“Everyone is back, so that’s good,” Ryan said. “We had to overcome injuries and inexperience this year, with the girls needing to understand what it takes to play at this level.”

Scotch Plains was a major player in Union County from 2004-2009, reaching the UCT semifinals all six years, including winning the event for the first time in 2004, the second time in 2005 and the third time in 2007.

A new head coach and entirely different starting cast, which included three freshmen, put the Raiders in a rebuilding situation this season.

Leading the way at the point was junior Evie Klotz, who proved to be one of the more polished 1-guards in the county, despite playing on a team that was void of any real varsity experience coming in.

Klotz can dribble against pressure and can pull up and hit an important 3-point shot with the best of them.

Klotz, as a result of her steady performance this year, made the Union County Coaches Association All-County Team – see list below.

Fellow junior and co-captain along with Klotz, forward Aysia Peterson, went down with a knee injury in early January right after the team’s signature win, which was a come-from-behind conference home victory over Westfield Jan. 5.

Peterson did not return. Kreyer was banged up. Taylor Sebolao missed a couple of games because of a concussion. Injuries seemed to mount more and more as the season progressed.

However, the Raiders found a way to rebound from a 2-8 start by winning three of four at one point to get to 6-11.

Scotch Plains ended up winning one county tournament game by downing Rahway at Johnson and still qualified for the North 2, Group 3 playoffs where it fell at Millburn in first round play.

Those were some of the positives that can be taken from a season that was much shorter on wins than the Raiders are used to in recent years.

Peterson scored 14 points and grabbed 20 rebounds – 10 on offense and 10 on defense – when Scotch Plains defeated Westfield 53-42 at home on Jan. 5.

A performance like that was sorely missed by the Raiders the rest of the season. If she comes back healthy next season and is uniform from November until March that will make Scotch Plains a much more formidable foe.

After a 1-5 start, Westfield – with a much more experienced squad - rebounded to reach the UCT semifinals, captured one state tournament game in North 2, Group 4 and finished 15-9.

You can definitely rank Westfield among the top five teams in the county this year, along with Roselle Catholic, Roselle, Cranford and Summit.

The fact that Scotch Plains was able to put it all together for one day early in the season and defeat one of the top five teams in the county is something the Raiders can hang their hats on and take as a major positive into next season.

Scotch Plains also went 4-9 in UCC-Watchung Division play, splitting home-and-away series with Plainfield, Westfield and Rahway and beating Elizabeth at home. A conference game at Elizabeth was snowed out and not made up.

Freshmen Sebolao and forwards Renee Oliver and Tara Sweeney – also starters - showed a tremendous amount of ability and have huge potential for three more seasons. In addition to Klotz and Peterson being seniors next season, that could be a pretty good starting five to commence the 2010-2011 campaign with.

Eligible to return for 2010-2011 season:

Juniors

12-Linsey Phelan, guard

14-Erin Brown, forward

21-Becca Kreyer, guard

22-Evie Klotz, guard

24-Aysia Peterson, forward

Sophomore

5-Liz Gallo, guard/forward

Freshmen

13-Christine Monroy, guard

15-Kelsey Meisch, guard

20-Tara Sweeney, freshmen

23-Taylor Sebolao, guard

25-Renee Oliver, forward/center

UNION COUNTY BASKETBALL COACHES ASSOCIATION

TOP 5 / ALL-COUNTY,

REPRESENTATIVE FROM EACH MEMBER SCHOOL

TOP 5:

Allison Skrec, Roselle Catholic, senior

Emily Cristaldi, Summit, senior

Chanel Johnson, Plainfield, senior

Jakoya Duggans, Roselle, senior

Diana Venezia, Westfield, senior

THE REST:

BREARLEY: Samantha Hoag

CRANFORD: Jamie Webb

DAYTON: Anna Lies

ELIZABETH: Diamond Price

GOV. LIVINGSTON: Alyssa Polimeni

HILLSIDE: Jameka Parsons

JOHNSON: Gina Trani

LINDEN: Shannon Wheeler

NEW PROVIDENCE: Kaitlyn Cresencia

OAK KNOLL: Catie Mota

PLAINFIELD: Brittany Sutton

RAHWAY: Maureen Morris

ROSELLE: Bianca Partlow

ROSELLE CATHOLIC: Jenny Malone

ROSELLE PARK: Gabby Clauer

SCOTCH PLAINS: Evie Klotz

SUMMIT: Kate Martino

UNION: Jamiyah Bethune

UNION CATHOLIC: Jasmine Serano

WESTFIELD: Amanda Markowski