Union Catholic Girls Basketball Dominates Kent Place

Give the Union Catholic girls' basketball team credit.

The Vikings took advantage of an inferior opponent in Kent Place and delivered the knockout punch in the first quarter.

Union Catholic scored the final 13 points of the opening stanza and extended that run to 16 before Kent Place scored again.

The Vikings went on to slay the Dragons 42-23 Thursday afternoon in Union County Conference-interdivision action at Kent Place in Summit.

"I think they had problems handling our pressure," Union Catholic head coach Kathy Matthews said. "We went from man-to-man to diamond and we're pretty good at diamond. I think they had problems handling that and that's what turned the game."

UCC-Mountain Division squad Union Catholic won its second straight to improve to 6-4. The Vikings defeated UCC-Watchung Division foe Union 50-42 at home Tuesday to snap a three-game losing streak.

UCC-Valley Division member Kent Place fell to 3-6. The Dragons are 2-4 in the Valley Division.

A basket on the left side by senior Torianne Beckman began Union Catholic's first-quarter surge after Jillian Nash tied the game at 2-2 with a shot from the left. Then junior point guard Ally Guzman hit a shot from the left, followed by two baskets from sophomore guard Jasmine Serano, the first an inside banker and the second a jumper from the left.

Sophomore reserve Quorea Pearyer then came up with the hot hand by first hitting a left-handed 3-point shot from the top of the key and then stealing the ball and driving down court for a layup.

That made the score 15-2 Union Catholic at the end of the first quarter, setting the stage for a dominating non-conference victory.

Pearyer began the second quarter with her second 3-point basket before Kent Place scored again.

The Dragons were paced offensively and defensively by the outstanding play of Erin McDonnell, who led all scorers with 11 points and grabbed eight rebounds, three of them on offense.

Beckman and Serano paced Union Catholic with 10 points apiece, while Pearyer and senior forward Brenda Eke poured in eight each.

Serano also grabbed six rebounds and dished out two assists. Also a varsity starter last year as a freshman, Serano paced Union Catholic with an 18-point effort in Tuesday's win against visiting Union.

She's coming on as a rising player up to this point in her career.

"I think she can be a really good player," Matthews said. "She's very heads-up for a sophomore and she keeps her poise. I'm pretty hard on her because I want to see her get better every time she gets on the floor. She's a great kid. She has definitely improved her ball-handling and her outside shooting and also, she's playing with a better group of kids. We're asking her to play her game, not do so much. We asked a lot of her last year. Really, for a freshman, she really handled it well. She's very mature for her age and she's a very good student. She's really not a sophomore in mentality."

Union Catholic's next nine games are against fellow Mountain Division foes - which are its final nine conference games - with the first seven counting toward qualifying for the Non-Public, North A state playoffs.

Union Catholic has not made the state playoffs in a few seasons, finishing with a 10-10 record two years ago and missing by one game to qualify before last year's 6-15 campaign.

This year's squad has now already equaled the win total of last year's team, which is something the Vikings can now build on for the rest of the season.

A very challenging stretch of conference games continues Friday night at 7 at home against Johnson of Clark.

"The Mountain Division is good, out top team (Roselle Catholic) just beat Piscataway and teams have been beating each other," Matthews said. "I think our kids are getting better all the time and I think we just have to pick up a couple of key wins in that stretch. The reason why we didn't make the states the last couple of years was because we weren't talented enough to make the states.

"We're a little more talented this year and our younger players, our sophomores are our better offensive players, but they make defensive mistakes," she continued. "Every day that gets less and less. We've just got to keep working and I'm not even going to worry about that. We'll go game to game and I'll work as hard as I can with these kids and I'm not going to even mention that to them. Hopefully, by the cutoff, we'll be there."

For the first time this year teams could make the state playoffs in their section with a record under .500 if there is availability up to 16 teams. At 6-4, the Vikings know that if they go - at worst - 3-4 in their next seven qualifying games they will automatically get in.

However, like all teams, their goal will be to go 7-0 in their next seven.

"We would like to have at least the .500 record you need and get in that way," Matthews said.

NOTES: Not only did Union Catholic end the first quarter with a 13-0 run, but the Vikings shot 50 percent from the field - 7-of-14 - and did not commit a turnover in those first eight minutes. Guzman assisted Serano's back-to-back buckets in the quarter, while Eke grabbed two of her five rebounds in the period.

Matthews became only the fifth girls' basketball coach in New Jersey to win 600 games, notching the milestone victory in Union Catholic's 2007-2008 season-ending 31-29 win at Oak Knoll. That put her record at 600-203.

Her record now is 612-222 (.734).

Matthews led Union Catholic to the first girls' Tournament of Champions championship game in 1989 after Union Catholic won a state championship that year.

Present Kent Place head coach Deb Malmgren guided Mount St. Dominic of Caldwell to the 1994 TOC championship after that school won a state title that season. 

UNION COUNTY CONFERENCE-INTERDIVISION GAME

UNION CATHOLIC (6-4)                           15       7      13      7 - 42

KENT PLACE (3-6)                                     2       5        8      8 - 23   

UNION CATHOLIC (42): Brenda Eke 4-0-0-8, Torianne Beckman 2-2-0-10, Jasmine Serano 4-0-2-10, Ally Guzman 1-0-0-2, Quorea Pearyer 1-2-0-8, Catherine Bree 2-0-0-4, Jasmine Holder 0-0-0-0, Alex Evans 0-0-0-0, Colleen Mulkern 0-0-0-0, Jessica Santiago 0-0-0-0, Jackie Thomas 0-0-0-0, Emily Done 0-0-0-0. Totals: 14-4-2-42.

Starters: Eke, Guzman, Mulkern, Munkittrick, Serano.

KENT PLACE (23): Erin McDonnell 4-0-3-11, Jillian Nash 3-0-0-6, Maya Lobban 4 2-0-1-5, Jessica Van Besien 0-0-1-1, Lindsey Cianciotta 0-0-0-0, Catherine Cirello 0-0-0-0, Ali Coy 0-0-0-0, Catie Kroeger 0-0-0-0, Lauren Oberlander 0-0-0-0. Totals: 9-0-5-23.

Starters: Cianciotta, Kroeger, McDonnell, Nash, Van Besien.