Jefferson girls overpowered in sectional final
SUSSEX BOROUGH — With two of its key players in foul trouble, Jefferson came up on the short end of a 47-35 decision to NJAC-Freedom rival High Point in the NJSIAA North 1 Group II final.
It was the second victory over Jefferson this season for the top-seeded Wildcats (25-4), who pulled away with a 9-2 run to open the fourth quarter and establish a 40-29 lead. Madalyn Smith went five for six from the foul line in the final quarter and finished with a game-high 16 points for the Wildcats.
Senior forward Julia Murawinski and sophomore point guard Taylor Langan, the essence of the attack for the second-seeded Falcons, each had unforseen stays on the bench with two fouls apiece in the first half. Murawinski picked up her second foul with 4:55 remaining in the first quarter and sat for the rest of the half. Langan, who paced the Falcons with 11 points, was whistled for her second foul 37 seconds into the second quarter. Held on the bench until halftime, she was called for her third foul with 4:55 to go in the third quarter and did not enter the game again until early in the fourth quarter.
In their stars’ absences, Jefferson (25-4) remained focused and positive and was able to stay within 31-28 after three quarters.
“We knew on the bench that we had to step up,” said junior Nicole Vassallo, who saw major minutes as a substitute and contributed three points.
“Coach (Jim MacDermid) came over to me and he said, 'Do you have this, Vassallo?’ And I said, 'Yeah, I do.' When you’re in that situation you have to make sure that you’re confident in yourself and confident in your team that even though two of your best players are on the bench, the rest of the team is going to get it done.”
Junior Ashley Hutchinson, who moved over to take the point duties from Langan, delivered eight points. Sophomore forward Victoria Pietrazskiewicz contributed five points off the bench for the Falcons.
“We talked about it before the game, that no matter what happens we have to stay together,” Vassallo said. “And I believe that’s what we did, even though we didn’t come out with the win. I knew that I had to be ready for anything. We’ve been through a lot to get here and, with two of our best players on the bench, we weren’t surprised that that might happen to us in the final. So we were all ready for whatever we had to go through tonight. We all came through and we all did our jobs really well, but it didn’t come out for us in the end.”
Pietrazskiewicz hit two free throws with 3:46 left in the third quarter to help the Falcons close to within 31-28. Margo Peterson and Trisha Peterson opened the fourth quarter with 3-pointers to give the Wildcats a 37-28 lead.
“It was really hard to watch knowing you’re on the bench and not being able to help you team when they’re out there working hard, “ said Murawinski, who has signed a National Letter of Intent to play volleyball at Sacred Heart.
"But everyone on this team works equally as hard, so we knew that we were in safe hands when the other girls went in,” Murawinski said. “We knew that it was going to be a tough game. We knew that High Point was going to come out strong, but we didn’t realize how strong and they really brought it to us."