Holmdel girls fall to the red-hot Lady Rockets

FARRAH MAFFAI Raritan’s Kelly Robinson tries to pass around a Holmdel defender during the Lady Rockets’ 75-50 win in the CJ Group II semifinals on Friday in Hazlet.

Top-ranked St. John Vianney survives a scare

By Warren Rappleyea

Staff Writer

A run to the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group II semifinals should give the Holmdel High School girls’ basketball team a solid foundation to build upon for next season.

The young Hornets finished 10-13 overall but saved their best play for the tournament. Holmdel opened against North Plainfield and came away with a 53-44 victory, as Dana Hoffman and Juliann Vikse combined for 33 points, and Jasmin Rodriguez added eight more.

In the second round, Rodriguez scored eight first-quarter points on her way to a season-high 12-point game. Ashley Falchetti had seven steals as the Hornets downed Carteret, 48-40.

Holmdel was finally eliminated on Friday by Raritan, 75-50, yet showed a lot of character in the loss. Down early, 18-6, Holmdel played tough until the end. Vikse led the offense with 13 points and Hoffman had 12 points.

"I’m more proud of the way we finished against Raritan than of the wins in the tournament," Coach Justin Meyer said. "Early in the season our team chemistry was off, and to see them stick together like this was my proudest moment of the season."

Holmdel will be sticking together next season when its entire lineup will return. That includes Hoffman, a junior who averaged 13.2 points and 6.3 rebounds; sophomores Falchetti, (6.2 points, 3.8 assists and 5.2 steaks), Vikse (10.7 points, 7.3 rebounds), and Rodriguez, who came on strong late in the season, 5.7 points; and freshman Jackie Klatsky, 5.2 points.

Other key returnees include junior forward Alyssa Ricker; sophomores Hanna Wong, a guard, and Emily Kavanaugh, a forward; and freshman forward Mary Orsini. Wong and Kavanaugh missed the season with injuries. Wong tore an ACL last summer and Kavanaugh had kneecap problems.

"The girls are already looking forward to next season," Meyer said. "They’re starting to realize how good they can be. It was fun to watch them grow into a team this year."

As for the Raritan girls, the win over Holmdel meant a shot at second-seeded Rumson-Fair Haven and Chrissy Fisher, the Shore’s premier player.

Raritan has earned its trip to the sectional final, knocking off Ewing, 65-52, in its opening-round game before getting by the bracket’s top seed, Voorhees, 66-65, in the quarterfinal round. In that game, Megan Lomicky hit the game-winning free throw, while Kelly Robinson had 20 points, 14 rebounds and seven blocks for the eighth-seeded Rockets.

Robinson has emerged once again as one of the Shore’s elite players, and will need to perform at the highest level to help her team as it looks to knock off the state’s seventh-ranked team, Rumson.

Against Holmdel, it was the trio of Robinson, Adrianna Velez and Amanda Harmata doing the most damage, providing the team with 16 of its first 18 points, while the Rockets jumped out to an early lead. After Holmdel cut the lead to seven with about 3:40 left in the first half, Velez reeled off eight straight points to end any thoughts of a comeback.

Robinson and Harmata finished the game as the high scorers with 21 apiece, while Velez finished with 17, including five three-pointers.

Tuesday’s sectional final against Rumson promised to be an interesting contest, with the Raritan players confident they had another upset in them. The winner advances to tomorrow’s Group II semifinal round.

Another local team that has kept its season alive is the state’s top-ranked team, the St. John Vianney Lancers of Holmdel. The Lancers survived a scare in Saturday’s Parochial South A semifinal round when they topped host Holy Spirit in overtime on a pair of free throws from Jaime Komar.

Vianney looked to have the game won when freshman point guard Shantel Brown hit a pair of free throws with seven seconds left in the fourth quarter to give SJV a two-point lead. But the Spartans answered with the tying basket when Bryan Batten hit a lay-up before the buzzer. In OT, the Spartans scored the first four points, but baskets from MaryBeth Kuenne and Brown kept Vianney’s hopes alive before Komar’s free throws iced the win.

Senior Cheri Wittlieb, who is making a strong case for Shore Conference Player of the Year honors, led Vianney with 16 points, while Kuenne added 11 and Brown, 12. Alison Regler was the team’s defensive catalyst, holding Holy Spirit’s Kim Ordille to just six points.

With the win, Vianney advanced to yesterday’s sectional final, where it faced a familiar opponent, the Red Bank Catholic Caseys, who knocked off top-seeded Notre Dame in the semifinal round.

The only other local teams in the state tournament were knocked off last week.

The Middletown North Lions fell to second-ranked Marlboro in a CJ Group IV quarterfinal game, while the Middletown South Eagles fell to Hamilton West in their quarterfinal matchup.