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Sports

Lady Pioneers Roll into Sectional Basketball Final

The girls' varsity basketball team plays stifling defense to jump out to huge lead and eventually win 48-21.

, the Lady Pioneers set out this week to defend their state title and erase any lingering disappointment.

With three wins in five days, the quest is off to a good start.

The New Providence girls’ varsity basketball team crushed North 13th Street Tech this afternoon, 48-21, to advance to the final round of the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 1 playoffs.

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No. 8 North 13th Street Tech had upset No. 1 Dunellen on Thursday, allowing No. 4 New Providence to host the semifinal match-up instead of having to play on the road at Dunellen.

The Lady Pioneers will also host the final round against No. 7 University, who upset No. 3 Whippany Park today.

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Head Coach Cap Pazdera didn’t think that there would be any complacency because of the success of the previous year.

“I told them that this is an opportunity that you don’t get very often, and right now we’re staring it in the face again,” Pazdera said of the chance to repeat as state champions.  “[I said to just] kind of draw on that experience from last year, not to be overconfident, but just confident that we can hopefully go out there and compete with University.”

While the Lady Pioneers couldn’t get to the final round in the county tournament, they erased any doubt early on in this one with a stifling full-court press that allowed them to jump out to a 27-3 lead.

“We knew if we pressed them and we played solid defense that we would take control of this game,” Pazdera said.  “So that was our goal and I think they executed very well."

When the Lady Cougars did work the ball across the half-court line, they struggled with travelling and an inability to get open looks; it took them until there was 1:30 left in the first half to hit their first field goal.

Overall, the Lady Pioneers forced 26 turnovers and only allowed five field goals.

“Defense wins games, and we just played really tough, we came out really strong on the defensive end in the beginning, and then our offense just kept moving,” sophomore said.

As Squeri indicated, the Lady Pioneers really worked hard to find open looks by moving the ball around the horn, from the paint to the corner to the top of the key to the other corner and back to the paint, sometimes sending the ball fully around multiple times on one possession until someone came free.

“It was basically just keeping our patience and just finding the open player,” Squeri said.  “Eventually if you work the ball around, the defense was getting tired, so we got the perfect shot in the end.”

“In scouting them, I knew that they liked to double team a lot and that if we made that quick extra pass, that somebody was going to be wide open, and I think they did a good job of that,” Pazdera added.

Nine players ended up scoring for the Lady Pioneers, with senior Laura Gregory leading the way with 13 points.

The senior forward scored the first field goal of the game for the Lady Pioneers, and then drove down the lane for their final points of the first quarter to make it 12-1. She scored her last field goal of the first half to make it 21-3 New Providence after a fast break off of a steal by .

Culleton followed with a mid-range jumper before intercepting another pass and taking it in for a layup herself to make it 25-3 New Providence.  The Lady Cougars then went on a mini run against the Lady Pioneers second unit to close the half and cut the deficit down to 18 at the break.

Gregory, whose nine first-half points matched the Lady Cougars' first-half total, noted that the team lost in the county tournament last year as well before going on to the state tournament and winning, so everything is going on the same track thus far. 

"We were all talking about it before. [Last year] everything came together in the last game at University. I mean we came off a county loss, too in the state tournament, came off a run defeating a couple of weak teams, but we're planning on doing the same thing this year [in winning the state title]," Gregory said.  

Culleton sparked the Lady Pioneers in the third quarter.  She hit a baseline jumper to start the period, and after the Lady Cougars cut the deficit to 15 with a 3-pointer, Culleton inbounded to Gregory in the paint for a layup before hitting another baseline jumper to stretch the lead to 21 with 2:44 left.

Pazdera started pulling his starters early in the fourth, but left Squeri in.  The sophomore hit a 3-pointer to make it 40-17 with 6:36 left before she too came out of the game.

The Lady Pioneers will host No. 7 University on Monday in the final round of the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 1 playoffs.  

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