Here is the story by Lauren Knego of NJ.com
Heading into halftime of the Union County Tournament final on Sunday afternoon, top-seeded New Providence knew it had to turn its game around in the second half.
New Providence, ranked No. 9 in the NJ.com Top 20, was trailing 21-19 and the Pioneers were determined not to lose to Westfield for a second time this season.
The Pioneers really stepped up their defense in the second half, holding the Blue Devils to only two points in the third quarter, en route to a 46-34 victory and its second-straight Union County Tournament title.
New Providence, which has won 14-straight games, defeated Westfield in the final last season to win its first title in 32 years. The Blue Devils, which were held to their lowest point total of the season, were looking for their first title since 2020.
“I think it just shows how hard we work and how well we work together as a team,” New Providence’s Jasmine Miller said of winning two-straight titles. “It’s something that we’ve put in a lot of work to be able to do.”
Sunday’s game was the third time this season the two Watchung Division opponents played each other. New Providence won 48-44 in just the second game of the season, and Westfield won the second game 61-48 on Jan. 12.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game and that whichever team worked harder and executed in the end was going to win,” Miller said. “So going into it we knew we had to play tough.”
Westfield didn’t trail in the first half, leading 10-9 after the first quarter and 21-19 at the half. The Blue Devils scored 18 of its 21 points in the paint, a stat that wasn’t lost on the Pioneers.
“I think that was something we focused on and talked about at halftime,” New Providence’s Grace Kinum said. “We knew we had to come out, we couldn’t let up threes but also they were getting us in the paint so we had to make sure we stopped doing that.”
Miller opened the scoring in the third quarter 37 seconds in, which tied the game 21-21. Catie Carayannopoulos scored more than two minutes later to give Westfield a 23-21 lead with 5:05 left. New Providence then closed the third quarter on an 8-0 run, which included 3-pointers from Grace Kelly and Miller, for a 29-23 lead.
And New Providence never trailed again.
“That was definitely the change in the momentum, we knew that was it, that was our chance to go up a lot,” Kinum said of Kelly’s 3-pointer. “We knew we had to keep up the intensity, last time we let up and they took advantage of it, so we had to make sure that didn’t happen this time and I think we achieved that.”
The Pioneers opened the fourth on another 7-0 run with five points coming from Miller for a 36-23 lead with 5:56 left. Westfield then outscored New Providence 8-4 over a two-minute span to cut the lead to 40-31 with 3:20 remaining, but the Pioneers closed out the game on a 6-3 run for the 46-34 final.
“I think it was completely a defensive effort, we played really, really hard defense, we were pressing man,” Kinum said of the second half. “We were trying to tire them out and make every shot they took hard to take, and I think we did that.”
Miller led New Providence with 14 points, with six coming in the fourth quarter, to go along with six rebounds. Kinum finished with 11 points and six rebounds, while Meghan Lamanna contributed 10 points and four rebounds.
For Westfield, which had a six-game win streak snapped, Annie Ryan led with 11 points. After Sunday’s game she is now 10 points away from her 1,000th career point. Carayannopoulos totaled eight points and seven rebounds while Sutton Factor chipped in six points and seven rebounds.
Both teams now turn their attention to the state tournament. Westfield, the reigning Group 4 champion, opens against No. 13 Phillipsburg as the No. 4 seed in North 2, Group 4. New Providence is the No. 1 seed in Central Group 2 and will open against No. 16 Delaware Valley on Tuesday.
“It definitely helps, and it’s nice to go in knowing that we can compete with the tough teams,” Miller said of the momentum the Pioneers are riding after Sunday’s win.
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