CHS girls' hoop coach Wright proud of team's fine run to ECT final
By Steve Carfagna
Staff Writer
Head coach Johanna Wright has to be sick of Shabazz by now.
In front of a crowd of about 2,000 at Essex County College in Newark on Feb. 27, the Cougars lost 55-40 to the state’s top-ranked squad, Shabazz, which won its 13th Essex County Tournament title and eighth in the last nine years.
Even worse, the Columbia High School girls’ basketball team is now 22-3 and all three of those losses have come against the Newark powerhouse.
“Sure, I’m disappointed by what can we do. We surprised a lot of people by getting this far and now, all we could do is to just get ready for the next one,” said Wright on the team’s shortcomings in Saturday’s ECT final. “We fell behind early as we just couldn’t seem to buy a basket. Our shots were there, but we just couldn’t finish. We couldn’t put the ball in the hole.”
CHS, which won its last county championship in 2001, entered the game ranked fourth in the state and seeded second in ECT.
The Cougars had suffered their previous two defeats this season at the hands of Shabazz, with the first coming in the season opener.
“Hopefully, this will better prepare us for the postseason and I’m just hoping our girls learned something from those three losses,” said the coach, who talked about what she told her players in the locker room following their third loss. “I told them to keep their heads up high and that they have nothing to be ashamed of. Shabazz has a great team, they are well-coached and they just have a tremendous program. From here, we need to continue to improve because who knows, we might just face them yet again.”
Columbia, which shot 3-of-24 and was 2-for-7 from the three-point range following the opening half, was trailing 30-15 before going on a 11-0 run with six of those points coming from junior Gabby Jackson that cut the deficit down to 32-28.
On the day, Jackson recorded a team-high of 16 points, was 11-of-12 from the line and finished with 10 rebounds.
“Gabby had a wonderful game. She really played hard and made a name for herself,” said the coach. “She’s been doing well for us all season.”
Early in the contest, Brianna Thomas and Melissa Carelli each connected on three-pointers to make the score 13-8 as the duo helped Columbia cut into another deficit, which saw Shabazz jump off to a 7-0 start.
In total, Thomas ended the game second on the team with 11 points in the losing effort.
“Brianna has been doing a great job, but in general, all of our players have really been contributing for us this season,” said the CHS longtime coach.
Next up for the team, Wright said her second-seeded Cougars would put their focus into playing in the State tournament with their first round game slated for this past Tuesday at home against Hillsborough.
“At this point, we just want to win. We want to work hard. We want to be competitive and we certainly don’t want to see any more losses going forward,” she said on her remaining goals for the season. “We want to go deep into the State tournament, and with seven seniors in our lineup, we want them to go out on a high.”
Staff Writer
Head coach Johanna Wright has to be sick of Shabazz by now.
In front of a crowd of about 2,000 at Essex County College in Newark on Feb. 27, the Cougars lost 55-40 to the state’s top-ranked squad, Shabazz, which won its 13th Essex County Tournament title and eighth in the last nine years.
Even worse, the Columbia High School girls’ basketball team is now 22-3 and all three of those losses have come against the Newark powerhouse.
“Sure, I’m disappointed by what can we do. We surprised a lot of people by getting this far and now, all we could do is to just get ready for the next one,” said Wright on the team’s shortcomings in Saturday’s ECT final. “We fell behind early as we just couldn’t seem to buy a basket. Our shots were there, but we just couldn’t finish. We couldn’t put the ball in the hole.”
CHS, which won its last county championship in 2001, entered the game ranked fourth in the state and seeded second in ECT.
The Cougars had suffered their previous two defeats this season at the hands of Shabazz, with the first coming in the season opener.
“Hopefully, this will better prepare us for the postseason and I’m just hoping our girls learned something from those three losses,” said the coach, who talked about what she told her players in the locker room following their third loss. “I told them to keep their heads up high and that they have nothing to be ashamed of. Shabazz has a great team, they are well-coached and they just have a tremendous program. From here, we need to continue to improve because who knows, we might just face them yet again.”
Columbia, which shot 3-of-24 and was 2-for-7 from the three-point range following the opening half, was trailing 30-15 before going on a 11-0 run with six of those points coming from junior Gabby Jackson that cut the deficit down to 32-28.
On the day, Jackson recorded a team-high of 16 points, was 11-of-12 from the line and finished with 10 rebounds.
“Gabby had a wonderful game. She really played hard and made a name for herself,” said the coach. “She’s been doing well for us all season.”
Early in the contest, Brianna Thomas and Melissa Carelli each connected on three-pointers to make the score 13-8 as the duo helped Columbia cut into another deficit, which saw Shabazz jump off to a 7-0 start.
In total, Thomas ended the game second on the team with 11 points in the losing effort.
“Brianna has been doing a great job, but in general, all of our players have really been contributing for us this season,” said the CHS longtime coach.
Next up for the team, Wright said her second-seeded Cougars would put their focus into playing in the State tournament with their first round game slated for this past Tuesday at home against Hillsborough.
“At this point, we just want to win. We want to work hard. We want to be competitive and we certainly don’t want to see any more losses going forward,” she said on her remaining goals for the season. “We want to go deep into the State tournament, and with seven seniors in our lineup, we want them to go out on a high.”
Views: 0
Comment
© 2012 Created by My Town Navigator.
You need to be a member of South Orange Navigator to add comments!
Join South Orange Navigator