New Providence Triumphs behind Gregory’s 29 points

Playing with heavy hearts Friday night, the New Providence girls’ varsity basketball team topped Union 52-41 in New Providence on Friday night, just one day after a disappointing loss to Governor Livingston in the

“We had a tough one against G.L. and I was hoping we weren’t coming out flat and trying to rebound from that," said head coach Cap Pazdera. "I think they did a good job. Emotionally and physically, we were drained from yesterday."

Laura Gregory led all scorers with 29 points and seven blocked shots, while Cassandra Squeri added 16 points. Kaitlyn Cresencia had five assists and grabbed 10 rebounds in front of the hometown crowd on Senior Night.

“[Gregory] played incredibly well on offense," Pazdera said. "We have been telling her all year she can take the ball to the basket anytime she wants. It’s a matter of attacking the basket strong and not fearing the defense and that was evident tonight."

All three seniors — Gregory, Cresencia and Jessica Pacheco — played a role in a game that began with Pazdera leading an honorary celebration for them. All three seniors helped guide the team to four straight conference titles, two sectional state titles and one group title.

“They brought so much to the program for the last four years. Laura and Kaitlyn started as freshmen. The contributions that they made, the things they did here, will never be forgotten,” Pazdera said.

Gregory opened the game’s scoring with an easy layup and Pacheco netted the final point of the contest by hitting a free throw to nail down the 11-point victory.

But the team’s slow start and mental mistakes early on left the Lady Pioneers trailing 15-12 at the end of the first quarter.

Squeri gave her team the lead with a jumper early in the second quarter during a 10-0 run that put New Providence ahead for good.

But, after a brief timeout, Union fired back with five unanswered points of their own to cut the lead down to just two. New Providence held off the surging Union team to end the half up by three, 25-22.

Squeri and Gregory were on fire to start the second half with the two combining for 11 points, including back-to-back threes by Squeri in the opening minutes during an 11-2 run that built a 36-24 lead. Gregory ended the quarter with a layup at the buzzer after a nice feed from Emma Culleton, who had four assists on the night.

New Providence maintained a nine point lead for most of the fourth with Gregory scoring 11 of her 29 points and Pacheco scoring the game’s final point, closing the final regular season game of her career.

After Friday’s win, Pazdera and the Lady Pioneers now set their sights on Tuesday’s state tournament opener against Newark Arts High School at New Providence.

“We are going to try to build off of this. Yesterday was a real tough loss for us emotionally. I think we are still down a little bit and we are going to use that to fire us up and get us ready for the states,” Pazdera said.

As far as the team being ready for Tuesday’s opener, Gregory said, “If we play to the potential that we can, then there should be no problem."