Ella Kreuzer’s 18 Points Leads Chatham High School Girl’s Hoops to Scrappy Victory Over Manasquan; Stay Undefeated

Behind 18 points from Ella Kreuzer, Chatham High School Girl’s basketball team (N.J.) picked up a hard-fought, physical 42-29 victory over Manasquan Saturday afternoon at home.

Cougar head coach Joe Gaba said he was prepared for a defensive battle. Though they aim to score approximately 60 points per game, he said he realized early on that was not going to happen. And a third period run proved to buoy the team to triumph.

“They’re (Manasquan) a really good defensive team, and they’ve always been that way, historically,” Gaba said. “They’re one of the best teams in the state; they’re one of the best teams in the conference. They defend you. They make you work; you work for every basket. We just kind of scratch and clawed our way.

“We look to play in the 60s. I knew that we weren’t going to get to 60 today,” he added. “We had that little spurt to start the third quarter, and that was the difference in the game, really.”

Chatham (8-0) actually trailed the Warriors, 7-4, after the first period.

The Cougars, however, went on an 8-0 run to take a 12-7 lead with a little over five minutes to go in the half. Chatham managed to hold a four-point (17-13) advantage at the break.

The Cougars took a 26-13 lead, capped by a Mia Semioli three-pointer off a rebound an assist from senior McKenna Hogan with 4:21 remaining in the third quarter. Chatham ended the period up by 13 points after Kreuzer nailed a shot from behind the arc.

Manasquan (4-2) sliced the Cougars’ advantage to 37-29 with 3:18 left in the game, but that is as close at it would get, as Chatham did more than enough to seal the victory in the end.

Kreuzer, a tough and talented guard committed to Division I Bucknell, momentarily left the tilt after sustaining a knock to the face in the fourth period.

But the senior downplayed the incident, saying she was okay at the moment. She added that it was no surprise to just how fierce the opposition played, giving the competitiveness of both squads.

“I don’t know. Everyone was all each other,” Kreuzer said of the impact to her face and physicality of the affair. “It (game play) was really intense. Going into this game, we knew it was going to be intense. They’re a really good team; really talented. We knew we had to move the ball quickly and get up the floor fast to get easy points.”

Junior Grace Cloud scored 12 points, while senior Arden Alvarez contributed nine in the Cougars’ win.

Olivia Shaughnessy, Jordyn Hollawell, and Grace Love all had six points for the Warriors.

Chatham hosts New Providence Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.

— Jerry Del Priore