Chatham Girl’s Hoops Ends Regular Season with Win Over Oak Knoll; Arden Alvarez Scores 20

Looking to get back on track after losing to nationally-ranked Morris Catholic in the Morris County Tournament finals last week, junior Arden Alvarez took upon herself to get Chatham High School girl’s basketball team back in the win column.

Fortunately for the Cougars (23-3), Alvarez paced the team with 20 points, as they took down Oak Knoll (6-19), 57-46, Tuesday night at home to end their regular season.

With Alvarez only scoring three points against Morris Catholic, Chatham head coach Joe Gaba said that Tuesday’s performance was a good way for her to rebound.

“It was a really good bounce back from Friday for her, knocking down some shots,” Gaba said of Alvarez finding her stroke. “I’m sure she was glad to see the ball go through the net.”

Additionally, Gaba added, if she, along with junior McKenna Hogan, shoots well from the outside in the playoffs, it will present a challenge for other teams to execute its zone defense.

“We’re going to need her because it’s hard to go zone on us when you have her and McKenna knocking down shots,” he explained. “Because everyone knows that Mia (Semioli) and Ella (Kreuzer) can knock them down. But on the perimeter, we definitely need McKenna and Alvarez to knock them down as well.”

Alvarez scored seven points and senior Addison Barrett added five to help stake the Cougars to a 20-11 lead in the first quarter.

But the Royals’ junior Milan Jones drained 10 points in the second period to help trim the Chatham advantage to seven points going to the locker rooms.

However, the Cougars went on a 10-2 run over the first 4:28 of the third quarter to widen the team’s margin to 45-28. But Milan poured in seven points to the Chatham’s three to make it 48-35 to close out the period.

While Oak Knoll outscored the Cougars, 11-9, in the final quarter, it was not nearly enough to overtake the opposition, as Chatham won their regular season finale going away.

After busting the zone, Alvarez said her teammates were able to feed her the rock and enjoy a measure of productivity that helped ignite the squad.

“We struggled at first to score in the zone, but then we were able to find gaps, and just go to the short corner, which is where I was,” Alvarez said. “So, they were able to get passes to me, which really helped us break in.”

Jones led all scorers with 21 points. Senior Cassidy Koetje (eight points) and junior Besty Burton (seven points) combined for 15 points in defeat.

A pair of juniors, Kreuzer and Semoli, dropped in 15 and 10 points, respectively, for the Cougars, who host the first round of the NJSIAA North Jersey, Section 2, Group 3 playoffs against North Hunterdon on Thursday at 5:00 p.m.

St. Elizabeth

The Royals will travel to St. Elizabeth for first round, North Jersey, non-public A postseason action Friday at 5:00 p.m.

— Jerry Del Priore