This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Schools

Summit Falls Short in Hilltopper Holiday Tournament Finals

Summit fell in the finals of the Hilltopper Holiday Tournament to defending Group 1 Champion New Providence.

 

Cassie Squeri led all scorers with 24 points as New Providence rolled to a 46-35 victory in the finals of the Hilltopper Holiday Tournament.

While both teams struggled in the first half, it was the Pioneers who came out of the break with a renewed energy and effort on the offensive end.

Find out what's happening in Summitwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Although both teams struggled on the offensive end in the first half, New Providence found themself with a 15-6 lead. The team used their impressive zone defense to force the Summit players into turnovers or poor looks at the basket. While the Hilltoppers too played strong defense in the half, they still were in a hole that they ultimately could not dig themselves out of.

“Defensively I just thought we were doing everything,” said New Providence head coach Cap Pazerda. “We were just executing everything. Communication was great. We were making them take shots that they didn’t want to take.”

Find out what's happening in Summitwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Pioneers did a great job of defending the basket and were anchored by Casey deVoogd who finished the game with six points to go along with five rebounds.

New Providence came out of the locker room with a much-improved offensive effort. They seemed to gain a bit of confidence as they passed the ball up the court with ease. Summit’s guards, who had applied solid pressure in the first half, were unable to stop the Pioneer attack.

“Third quarter I think we came out and started attacking a little bit more,” said Pazerda. “I think we started out a bit hesitant for some reason and were looking over our shoulder a bit.”

Squeri led the charge for the Pioneers in the third as she hit both of her three pointers in the period. The versatile guard also showed the ability to attack the basket when given the opportunity.

“She (Squeri) has the green light for us,” said Pazerda. “If she has an open shot, she can take it. Threes, she can post up, she can take the ball to the basket, she’s our main scorer.”

New Providence was able to pull ahead to a 20-point lead in the quarter something that Pazerda felt opened the door for Summit to make one last push.

“I think that 20-point lead gave us a little bit too much confidence we started to do stupid stuff,” said the New Providence coach.

Refusing to allow the Pioneers to walk out with the easy victory, the Hilltoppers’ began to apply pressure on their opponent to create turnovers that turned into a Summit rally. Kate Martino (18 points, four assists) and Kelly Osmulski (10 points, six rebounds) led the way, as they were able to pull Summit to within eight points on multiple occasions.

New Providence, living up to their championship pedigree, would not allow the tough Summit team to steal the victory on their home court. The team shot an impressive 12 for 17 from the line including several late in the game to seal the victory.

The Hilltoppers will return to the court next Thursday when they travel to Linden for a 4:00 tip-off.  New Providence is back in action on Tuesday when they host the Royals of Kent Place.

 

Summit        4    2    11 18    35 New Providence 5 10 18 13      46

Summit-35 (Martino-12, Gramigna-2, Murphy-4, Osmulski-10, Johnson-4, Hoesly-3)

New Providence-46 (Culleton-4, Lowenstein-3, Gosiewski-9, deVoogd-6, Squeri-24)

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?