SP-F Girls Basketball Tops Elizabeth for Third Win

Sometimes all a winning basketball coach can say after a game is "well, we outscored them."

Those were the words of first-year Scotch Plains-Fanwood girls' basketball coach Jennifer Ryan Tuesday night after her Raiders held on for a hard-fought 41-35 Union County Conference-Watchung Division triumph over visiting Elizabeth.

In a rare season where Scotch Plains and Elizabeth met for the first time with a combined total of only two wins, both teams dove for loose balls and jumped high to try to out-rebound one another en route to a basket.

Scotch Plains led by four at the half, outscored Elizabeth by eight in the third quarter and then prevented the Minutemen from stealing the game away by grabbing key rebounds after critical misses late by the visitors.

Scotch Plains snapped a six-game winning streak to improve to 3-8 overall and 2-3 in the Watchung Division. It was the home team Raiders' first win since they came back to beat conference arch rival Westfield 53-42 at home exactly three weeks ago.

Elizabeth, which just two years ago was in the Union County Tournament championship game, slipped to 0-13 overall and 0-6 in the Watchung Division.

Playing in her first game in two weeks after suffering a concussion, Scotch Plains freshman guard Taylor Sebolao performed quite well in pacing the Raiders with a 13-point performance, including the team's only 3-point basket.

Off the bench, freshman forward Tara Sweeney made her presence felt inside by going strong to the basket and scoring 11 points.

"The one thing that we did do better right off the bat was that we were boxing out better," Ryan said. "Although they did get a couple of offensive rebounds, we've been trying really hard to emphasize how important it is to box out."

Sweeney paced Scotch Plains in defensive rebounds with seven, while junior guard Becca Kreyer came up with six and freshman forward Renee Oliver four to go along with her six points.

Erin Brown grabbed a team-high six offensive boards.

Although she scored only two points and made just one field goal, the inside basket put in on the right side by Scotch Plains freshman guard Kelsey Meisch might have been the biggest basket in the game.

After Elizabeth cut the deficit to 37-31 on a 3-point basket by standout sophomore guard Jatirah Diggs - who paced all scorers with 16 points - with 3:28 left, Meisch was in the right spot at the right time underneath the basket and after receiving a pass from one of her teammates put the ball right up and in to extend the Raider advantage to 39-31.

Elizabeth did get within five at 40-35 in the final minute, but missed shots were followed by strong Sweeney rebounds the rest of the way.

A free throw by Evie Klotz, her seventh point and the final one of the contest, came with 4.8 seconds left and sealed the triumph.

In addition to being pleased with the way her team rebounded against an aggressive conference opponent, Ryan was also glad to have Sebolao back in the lineup.

"She had only two practices in the last two weeks," Ryan said. "She came out against Rahway and just warmed because she hadn't made it through a practice yet, so I wanted to see that."

Scotch Plains fell at Rahway 45-38 in conference play last Friday, with Klotz pouring in a season-high 24 points.

  "Taylor got hit in the head and had a lot of dizziness, so we had to wait on her coming back," Ryan said. "We've been banged up, so it seems like every game we have a different starting five."

Junior forward and co-captain Asia Peterson is still out with her knee injury, while Kreyer had parts of two teeth knocked out in the team's conference game at Linden earlier this month.

Sebolao scored three points in the first quarter and then five in the second, including a 3-point basket that gave the Raiders a 17-13 lead midway through the period. She scored her final two baskets in the third quarter and her final point on a free throw in the fourth.

"Taylor is capable of a lot and I love her style of play," Ryan said. "You're concerned after she gets hit in the head and the way she plays, but she showed no fear and no concern for, possibly, getting hurt again. They all do."

Kreyer was a prime example of that as she was constantly diving for the ball or trying to take it away from an Elizabeth player - which she was able to do on some occasions. The injury to her mouth at Linden was a scary one, but you wouldn't know she went through something like that by the aggressive way she still plays the game.

"I thought today that we showed a lot of heart," Ryan said. "We were diving all over the place. We're going to make mistakes, but it's just that - today - we outscored them. Were we great on the foul line? No." 

Scotch Plains made 8-of-14 free throws - 2-for-5 at the half, 4-for-4 in the third quarter and 2-of-5 in the fourth quarter - which could be better but is not that bad compared to some games.

Elizabeth was the opposite - failing to make all eight attempts from the charity stripe in the second quarter and shooting 1-of-10 from there during the first 16 minutes.

However, to the credit of the young and determined Minutemen - who hustled the entire game despite their record - they came back to make 5-of-8 free throw attempts in the second half - 2-for-2 in the third quarter and 3-of-6 in the fourth.

NOTES: Scotch Plains will continue this week with two more conference games. The first of those is against Union Friday at home at 4 p.m., followed by a game at Plainfield Saturday at 1 p.m.

UNION COUNTY CONFERENCE-WATCHUNG DIVISION GAME

ELIZABETH (0-13)                                        5      12       6     12 - 35

SCOTCH PLAINS-FANWOOD (3-8)           9      12     14       6 - 41   

ELIZABETH (35): Jatirah Diggs 5-1-3-16, Diamond Price 3-0-1-7, Kasandra Torres 4-0-0-8, Maggie Vera 0-0-2-2, Angie Ossa 1-0-0-2. Totals: 13-1-6-35.

Starters: Ossa, Torres, Vera, Diggs, Price.

SCOTCH PLAINS-FANWOOD (41): Evie Klotz 2-0-3-7, Taylor Sebolao 4-1-2-13, Kelsey Meisch 1-0-0-2, Tara Sweeney 4-0-3-11, Renee Oliver 3-0-0-6, Erin Brown 1-0-0-2, Becca Kreyer 0-0-0-0. Totals: 15-1-8-41.

Starters: Klotz, Kreyer, Sebolao, Oliver, Brown.