New Providence Girls Basketball Earns Sixth Straight Victory

As is always the case when two streaking basketball teams meet, something has to give. 

Thursday night in New Providence, it was Dayton’s 13-game winning streak that came to an end as New Providence earned a 59-44 victory to extend its own winning skein to six. 

The Lady Pioneers were paced by Cassandra Squeri, who had a team-high 15 points, Laura Gregory, who totaled 13 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks, three assists and a steal and Emma Culleton, who added 12 points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals. 

Kaitlyn Cresencia was also instrumental in the victory with a 10-point, seven-rebound, five-assist and three-steal effort.

“(Coach Cap) Pazdera told us, this game wasn’t for the conference, or the countys, it was about our pride,” said Cresencia. “And that meant more to us. We wanted to go out and play a good game.

“Since our loss to Oak Knoll (on Jan. 29) we’ve been playing really well. We want to keep doing that heading into the county and state tournaments.” 

Dayton, which last lost on Jan. 4 (48-36 to Roselle Catholic), was keyed by Anna Lies, who had a team-high 15 points.  

Cresencia had six points and Squeri added five as New Providence raced to a 15-5 first quarter lead. Dayton played much better in the second period as five different players got into the scoring column led by Emily MacDonnell, who had five points. Culleton led New Providence with six  of her team’s 19 points as the home team took a 34-19 lead into intermission. 

Dayton came out fast in the third quarter as Lies hit a jumper and Jen Kuczynski buried a 3-pointer to pull the Springfield school within, 34-24. That would be as close as Dayton would get however as New Providence stepped up its effort defensively and controlled the boards, limiting its opponents’ second-chance shots. 

Cresencia made a great play to close the third quarter, stealing the ball in the Dayton backcourt, turning and making a foul-line jumper as the buzzer sounded to give New Providence a 43-28 lead. 

"My favorite aspect of playing is creating opportunities," said Cresencia, who helped lead New Providence to the NJSIAA state Group 1 title last year. "So it's great having a lot of players on the team that can score." 

For Dayton coach Dave Rennie, the key to the loss was very evident. 

“We struggled to put the ball in the basket,” said Rennie. “And when that happens, it's going to be an uphill battle. New Providence is a really good team playing really well right now and played like it tonight.” 

As far as the winning streak goes, Rennie said it was never acknowledged. “We really didn’t ever talk about it,” he said. “We just work on going out every day and getting better.” 

NOTES: Dayton , which garnered the 12th seed for the Union County Tournament, will play 13th-seeded Union Catholic on Saturday at Roselle Catholic on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. New Providence, which earned the second seed, will play at top-seeded and two-time defending UCT champion, Roselle Catholic, in a regular-season game on Friday night at 7 p.m. Roselle Catholic and New Providence, along with third-seeded Gov. Livingston and fourth-seeded Cranford , each received byes into the quarterfinal round and won’t play its first county game until Feb. 20.