Roxbury girls hoops team earns first win in a month

ROXBURY - Winless for the past four weeks, the Roxbury girls basketball team snapped a six-game futility streak with a 29-17 victory over Hopatcong.

“It’s been a rough couple of weeks,” said Gaels senior guard Stephanie Bogdan, who scored a team-high eight points. “But we’re getting back into it, and we’re going to come out each game and continue to fight. We were really happy with how we played today. We’ve been struggling to run our offense, but we were able to run it really well today, and I’m really proud of us.”

Roxbury, which hadn’t won since beating Hillsborough 46-41 on Dec. 19, was able to take a commanding 20-6 lead with an 11-0 scoring run spanning the second and third quarters.

Senior guard Grace O’Donnell initiated the streak for the Gaels (3-6) with two free throws. Rachel Sclar, a senior guard who finished with seven points, hit a 3-pointer. Jackie Katzenberg delivered her only points of the game with a layup on a nice pass from Jordan Williams to put the Gaels ahead 16-6 with 2:02 to play before halftime. Christina LoBrace’s layup gave the Gaels an 18-6 halftime lead. Sophomore forward Giovanna Harrington, who finished with five points, scored with a layup 1:37 into the third quarter to give her team a 20-6 advantage.

Hopatcong (3-5) made a late run and was able to close to within 24-17 after Daniella Hulsman grabbed an offensive rebound and hit a layup with 2:55 left in the game. Hulsman, a senior guard, led the Chiefs with eight points.

Roxbury scored the game’s last five points from the free throw line: two from Sclar and Bogdan and one by O’Donnell.

“In the second half, I had confidence in us,” Bogdan said. “I knew that we had the game, but we just had to keep pushing. It feels really good to break this streak, and we have more games to go.”

LoBrace finished with four points and O’Donnell scored three for the Gaels. Sophomore Jess Alvarez scored six points for Hopatcong, which lost its fifth straight game.

“We play very hard, we practice very hard, and we just haven’t had a lot of paydays," Roxbury coach Frank Dekmar said. “So I’m really pleased for this team because they deserve some paydays, and this is one of them. The nice part is that we’ve always played outstanding defense with great effort and desire. Today we were a little more patient offensively, and we finished a little bit better. We’re growing as a team, and each day is a step forward for us. We have to keep on growing and hope that things keep going our way. It’s a start.”