SP-F Girls Basketball Trumps Rahway, Moves on to Face Roselle Catholic in UCT

This time the sneaker is on the other foot.

This time Roselle Catholic is the top seed and the favorite to win its 35th annual Frank J. Cicarell Union County Tournament girls' basketball game against Scotch Plains-Fanwood.

The defending champion and top-seeded Lions will face the 17th-seeded Raiders Monday at 7:30 p.m. in first round action at Johnson of Clark.

Last year Scotch Plains was the top seed and faced fourth-seeded Roselle Catholic in the semifinals at RC, falling 51-43.

"We have to approach this game like we've approached every game," first-year Scotch Plains head coach Jennifer Ryan said.  "We're just going to go out and play as hard as we can and do the things we know how to do."

Roselle Catholic went on to defeat second-seeded Plainfield 55-50 in double overtime in last year's final at RC to capture its second UCT title.

"We'll try to control those things we're improving on," Ryan said. "We don't have anything to pull out of a magical hat, so we're just trying to play hard."

Roselle Catholic won its first UCT title in 2003 and second in 2009. Scotch Plains won three crowns in between, including in 2004 for the first time, in 2005 and 2007. Roselle Catholic and Scotch Plains have combined to win five of the past seven UCT championships. Cranford won for the first time in 2006 and Westfield for the first time in 2008.

Tipping off this year's tournament, Scotch Plains advanced after eliminating 16th-seeded Rahway 52-34 Friday afternoon at Johnson in the first preliminary round game. The other three prelims will be contested at Rahway Saturday, with eight first round games at four sites to follow Monday evening.

The Raiders won their second straight game for the second time this season and improved to 6-11 overall. Scotch Plains, which has now won three of its last five, began the week by beating Rahway 48-34 at home in Union County Conference-Watchung Division play.

Scotch Plains and Rahway split their conference games, with Rahway falling to 4-12 overall after Friday's defeat. Rahway defeated Scotch Plains 45-38 at home in conference play back on Jan. 22.

Scotch Plains is 4-7 in the Watchung Division and Rahway 1-11, with both teams having three conference games remaining.

Also on Friday, both teams were awaiting word to see if they qualified for the North 2, Group 3 playoffs that will commence March 2. For the first time since the early 1970s, teams will make it this year with records under .500 as of last Saturday's cutoff date.

The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association just announced that the pairings will now be released Saturday afternoon some time - which is much later than in the past.

In last year's UCT game against Roselle Catholic, which was the last time Scotch Plains played the Lions, Evie Klotz scored six points. The junior point guard and co-captain paced all scorers Friday with an 18-point effort. In the Jan. 22 game at Rahway, she poured in a career-high 24.

"It's going to be difficult, but we're just going to try our best, there's not much you can do," said Klotz, who is averaging 10 points and 3.5 assists. "We're going to try to play our game and try and keep it the way we want to play and not let them control the game and see how it goes."

Roselle Catholic is sparked by returning starters Allison Skrec, point guard Jenny Malone, shooting guard Meghan Faughnan and forward Melissa Tobie. Skrec, last year's Star-Ledger Union County Player of the Year, reached 1,000 points earlier this year and is closing in on the girls' school record for career points. The other Lion starter is senior forward Anthonia Ajumobi, who is one of the best rebounders in the area. Skrec, Malone and Faughnan are also seniors and Tobie a junior.

While Scotch Plains will be up against it as any 17th seed would be vs. the top seed and defending champion, at least the Raiders have a bit of momentum, with a 3-2 mark in their last five games. However, Scotch Plains will miss the rebounding and scoring of junior co-captain Aysia Peterson, who has been out since early January with a knee injury and will probably not play again this season. Peterson scored five points against RC in last year's UCT semifinal.

"It was a big struggle getting used to all the new players and then having Aysia get hurt, we had to re-adjust again," Klotz said. "I think we're finally getting it. It's just been a hard year because we had to re-adjust twice and everything."

Klotz scored nine of her 18 points in the fourth quarter, including two of her three 3-pointers, the first from the top of the key and the second from the left side.

"If I see an open shot I'll take it," said Klotz, who also had three rebounds and one steal."

"We've had so many difficult situations between injuries, issues and other things, but Evie has evolved as a player and has really stepped up her game," Ryan added. "I think a big part of it is that she realizes the things that she does positively affect her team. When she's not stepping up it's difficult sometimes for the younger kids to step up. She always has to be there, she's got no choice. That's the pressure I put on her. She's got to be there every single time. She's got to control the game and when she does, it makes a big difference in the way she plays. She is definitely a very capable point guard."

Scotch Plains led the entire game, although Rahway pulled to within 36-29 by beginning the fourth quarter on a 6-0 run after baskets made by senior forward Maureen Morris on a layup, senior guard Asia Huey on an offensive rebound and putback and Daiiyah Harris inside.

Huey, one of the top players in Union County, paced the host Indians with a 14-point performance that included two 3-pointers, the last coming at the third-quarter buzzer.

Scotch Plains freshmen continuing their fine play included guard Taylor Sebolao with nine points and 13 rebounds (eight defensive and five offensive), forward Tara Sweeney with eight points and nine (four defensive and five offensive) first-half rebounds and forward Renee Oliver with five rebounds (two defensive and three offensive), two steals and a block - all coming in the second half.   

Harris grabbed 10 rebounds for Rahway - four in the first half and six in the second - with nine coming on defense and one on offense. Morris grabbed four boards in the first half - three defensive and one offensive - and Huey four in the second half - three defensive and one offensive.

Roselle Catholic enters Saturday's 1:30 p.m. UCC-Mountain Division game at Cranford with a 17-2 record and six-game winning streak. The Lions lead the Mountain Division with an 11-1 mark and have two conference games left.

Cranford won at Roselle Catholic at the buzzer - 49-47 - back on Jan. 16 in a game the Cougars outscored the home team Lions 18-5 in the fourth quarter after trailing 42-31. Cranford handed Roselle Catholic its first loss the last three seasons - in the season-opener for both in overtime two years ago, when RC was 9-0 last year and when RC was 8-0 this year. All three of those games took place at RC.

NOTES: Roselle Catholic is attempting to become the first UCT repeat champion since Scotch Plains in 2005. In the 2005 semifinals at the Elizabeth Dunn Sport Center, Roselle Catholic was stunned at the buzzer 37-36 on a 3-point shot by Union Catholic's Ally Walls of Cranford.

Union Catholic lost to Scotch Plains in the 2004 and 2005 championship games and fell in the final four straight seasons after capturing its last crown in 2001. The Vikings have won the most UCT titles.

Thursday afternoon's conference game at Elizabeth was snowed out, with Scotch Plains scheduled to play at conference foe Union Saturday morning at 10:30.

The final two scheduled regular-season games are non-conference matchups at Johnson Tuesday at 4 p.m. and home against Watchung Hills Thursday at 4 p.m. 

UNION COUNTY TOURNAMENT PRELIMINARY ROUND GAME AT JOHNSON

17-SCOTCH PLAINS (6-11)                           12             13            11            16 - 52

16-RAHWAY (4-12)                                         8               7              8            11 - 34 

SCOTCH PLAINS (52): Evie Klotz 3-3-3-18, Liz Gallo 1-0-4-6, Taylor Sebolao 2-1-2-9, Erin Brown 3-0-0-6, Tara Sweeney 4-0-0-8, Christine Monroy 2-0-1-5, Renee Oliver 0-0-0-0. Totals: 15-4-10-52.

Starters: Sweeney, Brown, Sebolao, Monroy, Klotz.

RAHWAY (34): Kiara Tate 2-0-1-5, Jo Jo Paterson 2-0-0-4, Daiiyah Harris 1-0-0-2, Asia Huey 3-2-2-14, Maureen Morris 1-0-0-2, Adjie Currie 1-1-0-5, Enijah Warren 1-0-0-2. Totals: 11-3-3-34.

Starters: Huey, Currie, Paterson, Tate, Morris.