Andrew Constant – Sports Writer

Metuchen’s Cassie Smith goes up with a basket against Haddon Township’s Alayxiah Carr during the first half on Thursday in Deptford. Photo by: Peter Ackerman

DEPTFORD — Some nights, no matter what a team throws at the hoop, the ball goes in.

Thursday night in the NJSIA Group I semifinals, Haddon Township made it rain from the perimeter en route to a 70-42 victory over Central Group I champion Metuchen at Deptford High School.

The Hawks — the South Group I champions — shot 29-48 as a team (60 percent) and knocked down nine 3-pointers, with Bella Preziosi’s 28 points leading the way.

Morgan Lenahan added 21 points, including 17 in the first half, and the Hawks jumped out to a 37-21 halftime advantage and never looked back.

“I said at halftime that they weren’t going to shoot like that in the second half, but they made a liar out of me,” Metuchen head coach Pat Mayo said. “We did so many things right on defense and in the second half, we tried man-to-man and a triangle-and-two and they were still able to score with people in their faces.”

Haddon Township made 14-26 shots in the opening half and came out of the locker room flying in the third quarter, connecting on 12-16 shots to blow it wide open. Preziosi scored 11 of her points in the third quarter and three others scored four points apiece in the stanza to spoil yet another historic night for Metuchen’s Cassie Smith.

With her first points of the second half, Smith surpassed Artie Flaherty for the most points in Metuchen history — boys and girls — with 2,053. Smith finished with 27 points on 10-18 shooting (6-10 FT) to finish her career with 2,062 points. In a season in which she surpassed any female player in school history and eclipsed the 2,000-career point milestone, Smith continued to stay humble and do her best to get teammates involved.

“I’m proud of each and every one of them,” said Smith of her teammates. “It’s sad, but I’m looking forward to the future.”

The Bulldogs shot just 16-50 as a club on the night and couldn’t get enough stops on defense to cut into the Haddon Township lead.

“Haddon is a well-coached team and I wish them well,” Mayo said. “We knew we had a good chance in this tournament and we believed as a coaching staff that we could get here.”

Haddon Township will play state-power Shabazz Sunday afternoon for the Group I State crown.

Junior Lianne Cifrodelli scored five points and senior Sam Streckfuss added four for the Bulldogs, who emerged from a tough start to their season to get this deep into the postseason.

“I’ll remember this run forever,” Smith said.

Metuchen’s Katharine Chura reacts after scoring in overtime against South River in the Central Group I final at South River High School. Photo by: Jason Towlen

SOUTH RIVER — With the clock ticking down in overtime and her team trailing, Lianne Cifrodelli stepped up and made the biggest shot of her life.

Cifrodelli canned a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 31 seconds left to put the Metuchen High School girls basketball team ahead 44-43, erasing a seven-point deficit in the final two minutes of the extra session.

Katharine Chura knocked down a free throw with 3.5 seconds left and the sixth-seeded Bulldogs emerged with a 45-43 victory over top-seeded South River in the NJSIAA Central Group I Final in front of a raucous overflow crowd at South River High School.

“When I got he ball, I was looking around, seeing who else was there, and I realized there was nobody right in front of me so I threw it up and hoped it went in and it did,” Cifrodelli said after the game. “It was like slow-motion, watching the ball go towards the hoop and it felt like such a long time, but it was such a great feeling.”

The Bulldogs, who will now play in the Group I semifinals Thursday at Deptford High School, had a 34-25 lead with 4:21 left in regulation, but South River refused to go away. The Rams went on an 11-2 run to close the fourth quarter, tying the game on a crazy 3-point play by Alyssa Barry, who was fouled while driving through the lane and banked in an off-balance runner.

South River, with all of the momentum, opened the extra four minutes on a 7-0 run, capped off by a Barry layup after Gabby Harris blocked Cassie Smith on the other end.

“We just had to stay focused and we had to go on another run,” Cifrodelli said.

Cifrodelli knocked down a long 3-pointer and Smith hit a pair of free throws to close the gap to 43-41 with one minute left.

“[Lianne’s first 3-pointer in overtime] got everyone hyped and we just had to focus on defense,” Smith said.

Cifrodelli scored a game-high 17 points – with 15 of those points coming in the second half and overtime – and added eight rebounds for the Bulldogs.

With 52.7 seconds left, Metuchen earned possession on a jump ball inside the paint on defense, setting up Cifrodelli to give the Bulldogs their fourth and final lead of the game.

Metuchen head coach Pat Mayo said that she told Smith – the team’s leading scorer – before the game that she needed her star to “take one for the team,” Tuesday night.

“Cassie knew this was going to be a box-and-one game and we asked her to take one for the team tonight, knowing she was going to be smothered on defense,” Mayo said. “But her teammates have been developing and had all the confidence in them and in the end, when it was rebound time, who came through for us? It was Cassie.”

Smith finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds, the final one coming with 11.3 seconds left in overtime to give Metuchen another possession and allow Chura to step to the line and clinch the victory.

A win for Metuchen did not seem like it would be the outcome once South River got out to that fast start in overtime, carrying over its momentum from regulation, with Barry and Harris leading the way. The duo scored 31 points for the Rams, with Harris scoring 16 and Barry adding 15.

“We’ve been a team of highs and lows all season. This is still a young team and that wave is something we need to do a better job of controlling, as we grow as a team,” South River head coach Mike Feaster said. “I thought we were going to ride it through overtime and we just gave up a couple of offensive rebounds that hurt us.”

Freshman Aleah Bass gave South River a double-double inside, scoring 10 points to go with 13 rebounds, as the team’s lone post-presence. She also had three blocks and two steals.

COLTS NECK — Basketball is a game of runs and on Saturday afternoon, the Monroe High School girls basketball team was on the wrong end of a back-breaking run that ultimately led to the end of its season.

Colts Neck used a 13-0 run between the third and fourth quarters to turn a 27-27 game into a 40-27 advantage and the third-seeded Cougars knocked down six free throws in the final minute to win 49-36 in a NJSIAA Central Group IV semifinal matchup.

Seventh-seeded Monroe got within 40-32 with back-to-back jumpers from Demi Rousseau and Erica Junquet, but the Falcons could not keep Colts Neck off the line in the waning moments.

Colts Neck got to the line seven times in the final quarter, knocking down 10-14 to pull away from Monroe.

“We wanted to stop the clock and get some more scoring opportunities if we could, but we had some missed opportunities at the end,” Monroe head coach Leigh Vogtman said.

Monroe couldn’t get a shot to go down in the second half, shooting just 5-for-18 after halftime and just 3-for-12 in the fourth quarter. Erica Junquet did all she could to keep Monroe in the game, scoring seven of her team-best 14 points in the final stanza, but the Falcons were thwarted by a strong Colts Neck defense.

“They played really good defense; you have to give them credit for that. I knew that when I scouted them that we’d have to take care of the basketball and make good passes,” Vogtman said. “We falter sometimes when we see some pressure and make the wrong pass or the wrong shot.”

The Falcons turned the ball over 20 times in the game, including 13 in the second half, all while trying to keep themselves in the game at the defensive end. Vogtman used a box-and-one defense against Cougars star Lauren Zborovancik, and while she scored just 13 points, Colts Neck was able to adjust and get Zborovancik free for a couple of open jump shots.

“She was a kid that scored a lot of points in the last four games and even with the box-and-one she was able to shake the defenders we put on her and knock down a basket,” Vogtman said. “When we had the box-and-one on, we did a good job of limiting their scoring opportunities, and they adjusted after halftime. We went into this game thinking we needed to have multiple defenses to stay in it.”

Erin Seppi came out flying, scoring 10 points in the first half for Monroe, but she picked up her second and third fouls on back-to-back possessions early in the third quarter and didn’t score again. The sophomore forward still finished with a double-double, collecting 11 rebounds in the game. Monroe won the rebounding battle 31-17, but shot just seven free throws in comparison to 24 for Colts Neck.

Cindy Foresta chipped in seven points and 11 rebounds and senior Demi Rousseau, one of three fourth-year players on the Monroe roster, scored five points in her final game. Rousseau, Nichole Tatte and Victoria Porpora helped lead the Falcons to their first divisional title since 1988 and won a school-record 22 games this season, something that Vogtman was especially proud of in her first season at the helm.

“I’m proud of the three seniors who stepped up and played whatever roles they were asked to play, however big or small, and how these kids played as a team,” she said. “We were a grounded team and we were able to accomplish things as a team.”

Metuchen’s Cassie Smith (21) scored her 2,000th career point during her team’s win over Middlesex Wednesday’s state tournament. Photo by: Ed Pagliarini

MIDDLESEX — All season long, the Metuchen High School girls basketball team has looked to senior Cassie Smith to lead the way.

Entering Wednesday night’s game against Middlesex — a team that had beaten Metuchen twice in the regular season — the Bulldogs needed Smith more than ever, and she delivered yet another historic performance.

Early in the third quarter of a then 3-point game, Smith scored on a put-back layup after a missed free throw for her 2,000th career point. But she didn’t stop there, scoring 13 of her game-high 26 points to lead sixth-seeded Metuchen past Middlesex 58-48 in the NJSIAA Central Group I Tournament.

Smith, the school’s all-time leader in points scored, now has 2,013 for her career, with at least one game remaining – Metuchen will host 10th-seeded Shore Friday in the sectional semifinals.

“I knew I was that close to getting the record and I was trying to get it before halftime, but that didn’t happen,” Smith said. “But we were able to get the win and that’s all that matters. I never even dreamt of this until I knew halfway through this season, when I broke the scoring record, that I was somewhat close. It’s an amazing feeling.”

Smith added 16 rebounds on the night to go with her 24th game of 20 points or more this season.

“To coach someone like Cassie, someone of her caliber, I actually expect her to do great things,” Metuchen head coach Pat Mayo said. “It’s something we expect out of all of our players.”

The Bulldogs made sure that Smith’s big night would not come in a loss, as the supporting cast stepped up and knocked down some big buckets to put third-seeded Middlesex away in the second half. Sam Streckfuss canned a pair of momentum-swinging 3-pointers during a 14-3 run to open the third quarter and finished with 13 points and Katharine Chura added eight points, including clutch free throws in the closing minute, for the Bulldogs.

“Sam’s our spark-plug; she has all the energy and when she hit those 3’s, we knew this was our game,” Smith said.

As Middlesex fought back in the fourth quarter, closing the gap to 51-46 with led than two minutes to play, Chura stepped up for Metuchen, going 1-of-2 from the free throw line three consecutive occasions in the final minute to seal the deal. The Bulldogs finished the game on a 7-2 run, erasing two regular season defeats at the hands of the Blue Jays.

“Everybody we play is going to box-and-one Cassie, but if everyone else attacks the rim and goes to the basket, you can’t stop everybody,” Mayo said. “Complimentary players are all stepping up, scoring when we need them, and they’re improving their IQ of the game. We’re doing so much better than we did a month ago. Earlier this season, we would have panicked in the backcourt and handed them the ball, but at least we fought tonight.”

Rosie Guarino did all she could to bring Middlesex back late in the game, scoring seven of her team-best 19 points in the fourth quarter. She also hauled in 10 rebounds to finish with a double-double, and Amanda Abate chipped in a double-double of her own with 13 points and 13 rebounds for the Blue Jays. But in the end, eight second-half turnovers did Middlesex in.

“We just wanted revenge really badly and we really wanted this win,” Smith said. “It’s hard to beat a team three times, so we worked really hard to get this one. I know I didn’t want to end my career with a loss, and getting Shore in the semis, a team we lost to in the same spot last year, we’ll have more revenge on our minds. I can’t wait.”