The Toms River East girls basketball team continued its winning ways, dominating Brick Thursday 56-30.
“It was our senior night, and I was able to start all my seniors, and they did a great job in the first quarter, they set the tone for us,” said head coach Kevin Cohen.
The Raiders started fast with a 6-2 run with points from Corey Schwartz and Angela Coon, who were able to knock down a few jumpers from inside the paint. As Brick began to attempt to answer, additional buckets were added by senior Amanda Cavaliere, who put the Raiders up 11-4 after a quarter.
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“We’re usually a team that presses a lot and use our speed, we were able to use our speed and get a couple of defensive turnovers and get on a nice run,” said Cohen. As the second quarter began the Raiders continued to play stellar defense which translated into easy transition points.
Emily Kunzman and Marissa Bruno took the lead in the second, knocking down a few three-point field goals enabling the Raiders to go on a 10-5 scoring run midway into the second quarter. “Emily is our shooter; when she shoots well, good things happen for us,” said Cohen. Kunzman finished with 19 points on the night.
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“(We get) one spark, and we’re always going with it, it’s always a team effort,” said Kunzman. Going into halftime the Raiders were manhandling a team that trumped them in size and yet still managed to outrebound them while generating 24 first-half rebounds. “They play hard and they go after it,” said Cohen.
Kunzman and Bruno continued their dominance in the third, putting the game well out of reach for Brick. An additional 9-0 scoring run for the Raiders put them up 36-15 midway through the third en route to a 39-24 third-quarter score.
The victory improves the Raiders to 14-5 on the season and extends their winning streak to four in a row. They will head into a matchup with Middletown North on Friday in an effort to achieve a home game in the conference playoffs.
“We got to keep playing good defense, we’ve got to score when we can, we’re really excited for the playoffs this year,” said Cohen.
