SPORTS

Crusaders knocked out in Non-Public North B final

Lauren Knego
inactive

PATERSON – Dealing with foul trouble early, the top-seeded Morris Catholic girls basketball team couldn't get its offense going and fell to No. 2 Lodi Immaculate, 46-35, in the NJSIAA Non-Public North B final on Wednesday.

Morris Catholic's Stella Johnson (4) drives against Lodi Immaculate's Breanne Bellerand (25) in the Non-Public North B final at Paterson Kennedy High School on Monday.

Morris Catholic (23-3) defeated the Blue Wolves 58-48 last season in the Non-Public North B final. This was the fourth straight year that the Crusaders had advanced to the final.

"They had more athletes than they used to have, last year they didn't have the guards they did this year. They have a lot of new girls in there that are good guards," Morris Catholic coach Rich Fachet said. "We had them making long passes. We were just missing on stuff, we were missing on some of the 22 stuff, but they were hurting a little bit. They got better at it though, it's hard to do that the whole game, but I thought we had to come out early, last year we came out early and played phenomenal."

Lodi Immaculate (23-7) took a 13-4 lead after the first quarter, but the Crusaders battled back with a 6-2 run to open the second quarter to get within 15-10 with 4:04 left. A minute later the Blue Wolves had stretched their lead to 19-12, but two free throws from senior center Claire Johnson and a steal and a basket from junior guard Stella Johnson got the Crusaders to within 19-16 with 2:11 to go.

Four straight points put Lodi Immaculate up 23-16, and with 34 seconds left in the second quarter, Feeney hit a shot and the Crusaders trailed 23-18 at the half.

With 4:57 left in the third quarter, the Blue Wolves led 27-20, but the Crusaders outscored Lodi Immaculate 6-4 in the final 2:50 on four points from junior guard Rachel Mills and a basket from Stella Johnson as Morris Catholic trailed 31-26 after three quarters.

The Blue Wolves opened the fourth quarter on a 7-0 run with five points coming from forward Sam Fuehring to take a 38-26 lead with 4:52 to play. A 3-pointer from Feeney cut the lead to 38-29, but Fuehring went to the line and sank both shots to keep Lodi Immaculate ahead 40-29 with 2:04 left. Mills scored with 1:41 to play and Feeney scored the final four points for Morris Catholic, but Lodi Immaculate went to the line three times and sank all six shots for the 46-35 final.

With Stella Johnson in foul trouble early, Fachet called on freshman guard Hana Driscoll to fill in when Johnson was on the bench.

"That was hard offensively, they had us outsized a little bit. Stella had early foul trouble, we were fooling around on offense and defense, and to get her off when we were defending, and we have to have her and Kate out there," Fachet said. "Just the fact that she was playing in foul trouble hurt us, and she loses a little bit of her rhythm getting off, coming out but you have to have her at the end so you have to play Hannah, Hannah Driscoll did a nice job going in defensively for us."

Feeney led the Crusaders with 15 points while Stella Johnson and Mills each scored eight points. Fuehring had 17 points for the Blue Wolves. Jasmine Gee and Bre Bellerand each scored eight points.

Staff Writer Lauren Knego: 973-428-6674; lknego@gannett.com