Chatham High School Girl’s basketball team played its typical tenacious defensive game, aided by Mendham intentional, painstaking offensive approach.
As a result, the Cougars (29-2) responded by smothering the Minutemen, 44-21, in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) semifinal round of the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 3 Girl’s basketball Tournament Tuesday night at home.
Chatham head coach Joe Gaba said Mendham’s game plan was to grid out plays and wait for its shot, in an attempt to limit the Cougars’ potent offense.
Fortunately for Chatham, its offense and defense proved it could handle the task at hand.
“They obviously had a game plan to come in and take the air out of the ball and just run a deliberate offense and slow us down. And, for the most part, they did. They dictated the tempo of the game,” Gaba explained. “They had one possession in the first quarter that went three minutes long.
“We can obviously score a lot,” he added, “so they wanted to limit the number of possessions in that game.”
But it did not work as well as the Minutemen wanted.
Senior Ella Kreuzer dropped in seven points, while the Cougars played lockdown defense to help it take a 11-2 advantage at the end of the first quarter.
Senior Mia Semioli and Kreuzer nailed back-to-back three pointers to extend the Chatham’s lead to 20-9 with 1:52 left in the second period before closing out the first ahead by 10 points (22-12).
After a lengthy scoring drought from both squads, Mendham (15-15) hit one from behind the arc to bring the contest to 22-14 with 4:31 to go in the third quarter.
Semioli responded with a three-pointer to swell the Cougars’ advantage to 25-14 with 2:15 remaining in the third period.
Chatham stayed the course and led by a 29-16 score at the end of the quarter.
Two straight threes by junior Ava Paone and senior Arden Alvarez gave the Cougars a 35-16 advantage midway through the final period.
The trio of Semioli, Kreuzer and senior Ryan Bolger sealed the deal for Chatham down the stretch.
Kreuzer drained a game-high 15 points, while Semioli and Alvarez contributed 11 and 10 points, respectively, in the victory.
Lila Schoenfeld led the Minutemen with 13 points.
The Cougars host Cranford in the final round of the sectionals on Friday night (TBD).
— Jerry Del Priore
NY NJ Sports World/Brooklyn Sports World 