Behind 24 points from senior Ava Paone, Chatham High School (N.J.) girl’s basketball made short work of Pequannock, routing the opposition, 63-34, in the preliminary round of the Morris County tournament (MCT) Tuesday night at home.
Refusing to be pushed around, head coach Joe Gaba told his girls that this time around they would be the ones inflicting their own brand of toughness and basketball bravado.
“I said to the team, ‘it’s time to impose our will, and not have teams to do it to us,” Gaba said. “And we did that tonight.”
The fifth-seeded Cougars (8-11) jumped out to a 19-10 lead, with junior Shea Lane scoring seven points in the first period.
Paone, who nailed five threes, opened up the second quarter by dropping in 10 points, and senior Chloe Lee added a bucket before the 12th-ranked Panthers (14-4) finally got on the scoreboard with 1:23 to go in the first half.
“They weren’t really good at guarding the three-point line, so I was open a bunch,” Paone explained why she was so successful from beyond the arc. “And my teammates got me the ball, and I was able to score in transition.”
Sophomore Lucy Arps, who chipped in with nine points and five steals, drained an impressive 45-foot buzzer-beater to end the quarter on a 17-2 run, and send Chatham into the locker room with a 36-12 commanding advantage.
Freshman Erin Hogan kept up the Cougar offensive onslaught with a basket early in the second half. Nearly two minutes later, Paone drilled a three-pointer for a Chatham 25-point lead with 4:20 remaining in the third period.
From there, the Cougars outscored Pequannock, 9-7, to end the quarter ahead, 50-23.
Gaba inserted his backups into the fourth period, and that proved to be fruitful for Chatham, as junior Maeve Morton drilled back-to-back treys for a 59-22 advantage with 5:33 left in the game. Sophomore Emma Vermillion capped the Cougars’ scoring with four points to help complete the blowout win.
“We’ve had a really hard schedule, so the bench has not had a whole lot of playing time. But the bench came in and gave us some really good minutes, for sure.”
Chatham will host Randolph Thursday at 7:00 p.m.
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