http://cranford.patch.com/articles/cougars-net-seven-wins-in-a-row
It was a game tucked between two big battles – Linden last week and Governor Livingston on Thursday – and it might have been one the Cranford Cougars would look past. But even though Brearly High scored the first four points on Tuesday evening in Kenilworth, Cranford wasn’t looking past anyone.
The Cougars (8-2) rebounded from that slow start to cruise to a 46-25 victory. It was their seventh win in a row.
The Cougars never lost their focus in a game in which, despite the early four-point deficit, it was clear they were the superior team. The Lady Bears (4-4) had no reliable ball handlers and against Cranford’s ball-hawking defense that means trouble.
Cranford trailed 6-3 midway through the first period, then turned it all on with a 17-0 run that put the game away. It was nifty outside shooting that got the Cougars rolling, with Jess McCoy hitting twice from the perimeter and Morgan Miller dropping one in from 17 feet and later from beyond the arc. Miller’s steal and lay-up put her team up 20-6 with 4:07 left in the first half.
Brearly scored the next four points before Cranford closed out the half with a bucket inside by McCoy and Miller’s driving lay-up and a rebound basket for a 26-11 halftime lead.
McCoy finished with 14 points, while Miller added 13.
In a game that might have gotten sloppy, Cranford took good care of the basketball, using crisp passing again to find plenty of open looks. The Cougars turned it over only 10 times.
“I was pleased with our amount of turnovers,” said head coach Jackie Dyer. “But games like this can bring out some of your weaknesses. We allowed too many offensive rebounds, which is not acceptable. So that’s something we need to work on is boxing out.
“We talked about working for Governor Livingston on Thursday and we have to be on our ‘A’ game. So every game is preparing for the next game.”
Despite surrendering those offensive rebounds, Cranford enjoyed a 37-26 advantage on the boards, led by 10 from McCoy and seven from Miller. Miller and McCoy handed out three assists apiece and each blocked two shots.
There was no letdown in the third period when freshman Mairead McKeary scored four of her five points, McCoy knocked down an eight-footer and got a stickback and Miller hit a runner along the baseline to extend the lead to 36-15.
Jenna Goeller turned in another complete line with six points, four assists, two steals and two rebounds.
“Those are the things I look at personally,” Dyer said. “Who’s getting the steals? Who has the assists and the rebounds? Because the points are going to come. It’s the other little things that make the team.”
McKeary added five points, Sarah Gugliucci four and Kaitlyn McGovern and Jackie Monteagudo two. Monteagudo made the most of her limited minutes against the Lady Bears, also grabbing three rebounds and a steal.
“I’m really happy with our depth,” Dyer said. “We can take someone out and put someone else in and nothing changes. It’s a real advantage to us that I can put other people in and the team doesn’t suffer.”
Cranford was coming off a big win over Linden, handing the Tigers their first loss of the season in convincing fashion. But the Cougars almost let a 24-point lead get away and that was what Dyer focused on in the time since that victory.
“We talked about how we need to be consistent defensively for four quarters,” she said. “We let Linden back in that game.”
Gov. Livingston beat Rahway 58-30 tonight for its seventh consecutive victory after it dropped it first game of the season to Johnson, a team Cranford handled easily in a 16-point victory earlier this season. But the Highlanders are tough defensively, and have held four of their opponents to 30 points or fewer.
“They are very good,” Dyer said. “They have a couple of good outside shooter and a good post player so our defense is going to have to be on top again.”
As for her own young team’s rapid start to the season, Dyer claimed not to be surprised at all despite the fact she starts three sophomores, a freshman and a junior.
“They work so hard,” she said. “I have summer league; they’re there. I have a fall league; they’re there. And then they work on their own, too, so it doesn’t really surprise me.”
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