Wayne Valley wins first Passaic County girls basketball crown since 1977 by Greg Tartaglia of The Record
WAYNE – The last time Fred Monica was on the winning sideline for the Passaic County girls basketball final, Wayne Valley was the team holding the trophy.
That became true on Saturday afternoon, when the No. 2 seed Indians not only defeated No. 1 Lakeland for the championship, 35-27, they erased the Lancers as a trivia answer.
Monica, Wayne Valley’s shooting coach, was at the helm the last time Lakeland took home the county crown in 1994.
“Before the game, he said, ‘My allegiance is to Wayne Valley now, let’s get one for this side’,” Indians head coach Kathy Sinram said.
The Wayne side had endured an even longer title drought, having captured its only previous Passaic titles back-to-back in 1976-77.
“Since the beginning of the season, we always kept it in our head, but we tried not to think too far ahead,” Wayne Valley senior Lexi Piotrowski said. “Everyone said that this is the year we could do it.”
The Indians (20-6) got it done with defense, holding Lakeland to 20 percent shooting from the field. That helped offset 20 turnovers of their own and a 6-for-15 (40 percent) day at the free throw line.
When it counted, though, Wayne Valley made coach Monica proud. Victoria Falso hit both ends of a 1-and-1 with 1:43 to play to push the lead to seven. Briana Neary (11 points, eight rebounds) made 3-of-6 from the stripe in the final minute, including a pair with 7.4 seconds to play to punctuate the win.
“Coach Monaco always says, foul shots can seal the deal,” Sinram said as she soaked in her first county title. The Indians’ last prior trip to the final was in 2003, the year before she took the helm.
“The girls just bought in to what we were saying,” Sinram added. “Everybody was focused and knowing what their job was in the moment.”
Lakeland (20-5) got an all-around strong performance from leading scorer Keira Marks. The sophomore had 16 points, eight rebounds, three steals and two blocks and canned 6-of-6 free throws playing in her second straight Passaic final.
Marks started an 8-0 Lancer run that opened the third quarter and gave them a 19-16 lead. The Indians responded by scoring the final six points of the period.
Junior point guard Steph LaGreca then took over early in the fourth, keying a transition game that helped Wayne Valley push the lead as high as eight. Although her only basket was a put-back in the third, she led all players in rebounds (10), assists (six) and blocks (three).
“That’s the thing – she doesn’t score a lot of points,” Sinram said of LaGreca. “Today, I don’t even think she took any shots [from the field]. But she can rebound, she can block shots, and she really was focused.”
Junior Carson Thomas drained a trio of three-pointers to finish with 11 for the Indians. Falso added six, and Piotrowski drained a trey early in the fourth that whipped the Wayne fans into a frenzy. Wayne Valley’s gym has been the annual neutral site for the title game regardless of which teams qualify.
“It made a better opportunity for more of our fans to come and get us pumped up,” LaGreca said. “They were amazing.”
Lakeland will attempt to regroup before Tuesday’s state tournament opener but likely must do so without forward Allison McBride. The junior aggravated a preexisting knee injury less than three minutes in and spent the remainder of the game on the sideline with an ice pack on her knee.
“She had a torn ACL, and she’s been playing with it for about a week and a half,” Lancers coach Brian Phillips said. “We were kind of just hoping she could get through it [wearing a large knee brace], but unfortunately not.”