Watchung Hills Dispatches Whippany Pk. With Gritty 1st Half

The Watchung Hills girls basketball team knew what its defense had to do: contain Whippany Park’s outside shooters. In the first half, they did that to a T, allowing only nine points.

That strong first half defensive effort was enough for Watchung Hills to ride to a 47-36 win over Whippany Park on Thursday night. 

“We knew they were a really good team,” said senior forward Breanua Williams, one of the players who defended extremely well inside and outside the paint. “We had scrimmaged them previously but myself, Brielle [Macellara], Rosalie [Minovich], and Amy Park were hurt. So we really got to see them from a [different] point of view. We went into the game knowing we had to guard their outside shooters.  We knew that if we played good defense, the offense would eventually come to us.”

“I was really happy with our defense,” head coach Sandy Whelan said. “Any time you hold a team to 9 points in a half … that’s one of the things we’re focusing on is playing tough defense. We did a good job of that in the first half.”   

The Warriors (18-7) held Whippany (20-5) to five points in the first quarter and four points in the second quarter and made them earn their points, as none of those points came off layups.

While the Warriors put up 22 points in the first half, to make their halftime lead 22-9, the offense was in total rhythm. But that changed in the second half, as they put up 21 points over the last 10 minutes of the ball game, thanks to an area they’ve continued to work on ... getting to the hoop.

“One of the things that we have been talking about is attacking the basket,” Whelan said. “Not only do we have the players to do it, we have the foul shooters too. It changes the dynamic when you get another team in foul trouble. Unless you attack the basket, that’s not going to happen. When we get the press broken with numbers, we are definitely looking to make sure we get a layup or some sort of foul.”

Williams, who netted 10 points on the night, agreed with Whelan’s sentiments, stating it’s a tactic they’ve really focused on as of late.

“We work individually in practice, pulling each other aside, and playing defense on a teammate," the senior said. "It’s a higher percentage shot. And if you’re driving, you have a better chance of getting a foul."

Of those 21 points, all but five came from either the free throw line or in the paint. 

Although happy with the win, Whelan was a little frustrated that they did not carry the same defensive execution into the second half, which saw Whippany Park put up 27 points.

“They know that the beginning of the third quarter is a critical point in the basketball game. We talked about trying to put that away and they still didn’t come out sharp,” Whelan said. “And that hurt us. It turned into a game where we had to manage a lead instead of starting to blow them out.  We lost our defensive coverage on No. 12 [Olivia Dudley]. We knew she was their best player. We shut her down to 2 points in the first half and then in the second half we decided that we were going to leave her open for looks and she scored 17 in the second half.”

“We can’t do that coming into the state tournament," she added. "We need to make sure we are focused on shutting down the other teams best players.”

With the regular season officially over, the Warriors now have three days to prepare for the state tournament, which begins on Monday. The Warriors will play host to Linden (12-10) at 7 p.m. in the opening round.

“We’re excited, I love the state tournament," Whelan said. "It’s my favorite. You get to play different teams that you haven’t seen.  It’s a fun time of year.  We will have two practices to get us ready for Linden.  We’ll take it one game at a time.” 

“We know its going to be a battle but I think we’re excited about where we might be able to go in the tournament and how we’re going to get there, so the girls are looking forward to it,” Whelan said.

“We really want to work hard because we really want this.  We didn’t get too far in the counties but now we really want the state title,” Williams said.

Brielle Macellara led all Warriors with 17 points.  Alana Tielmann netted eight, while Amy Park helped out with five.  Monique Goncalves, Kelsey Conway, and Breanne Mackie combined for seven points.