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You can officially mark your calendars. Thursday night it was released that on Tuesday, February 28 the Indians will be facing the Tenafly Tigers in the first round of the North 1 Group 3 State Basketball Tournament at Pascack Valley. What is even more exciting news coming out of the release of the bracket is that the Indians earned themselves home field advantage throughout the tournament, as they are the No. 1 seed.
Adding to that great news the Indians have added another one to the win column, putting their record at 20-1, one of the best seasons they've had in recent history. Saturday morning at Bergenfield the Indians beat the Bears 66-20. Lead by Juniors Brianna Wong, 14 points, and Lindsay Rohde, 7 points, the Indians put on a strong performance to remain undefeated in conference play. Again, while the Indians were fantastic on offense, it is their defense that stands out, holding the Bears to a mere 8 points in the first half and 12 in the second half. Bergenfield was stymied the whole game, never scoring double digit points in a quarter. -Emilio Quevedo
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“I guess there’s some risk but I knew that after being there and meeting the people there that I was not going to find a place better than that so why wait?”
That "there" for Kelly Petro is the University of Delaware, where Pascack Valley's junior Guard just committed to five days ago. After capping off a solid 55-24 win over Northern Highlands last week, Petro, who finished that game with a solid 7 points and another victory for the Valley, made the announcement to her teammates, who were extremely excited for Kelly. “[My teammates] are all awesome and I told them after the game [Thursday] and they were so happy for me. I love being surrounded by them and it was cool seeing them all be there for me.” Now while this decision may seem early, Petro had already received interest from other schools and this was not at all a spur of the moment decision. "I was between a couple of different schools but I think UDel is probably the best fit for me and I’m really excited about that. I was also considering West Point and Columbia." Petro described her experience being recruited by UDel as the best one for her and shared some inside detail about what they did to convince her to share her talents with the Blue Hens in two years. “They saw me play in a tournament last spring and then they had contacted me a little bit and then I spoke to Jasper about it and he knows the coach well and then it took off from there. Then I visited it a few times, and I loved it there." "I got to watch the team practice which was awesome and I got to hang out with them a little bit and meet not only the coaching staff but meet the players that will be juniors and seniors when I’m a freshman, which was awesome.” Of course, Petro has verbally committed to being a STUDENT-athlete, and she plans to uphold both ends of what that incredible responsibility will entail at UDel. Kelly hopes to be in the pre-Veterinary program at the school and will continue with that career, even when her basketball career ends. So for all of you future animal owners out there, it is possible your future veterinarian will take fine care of your animal, but she also may have the skill to cross you up on the court, so don't challenge her to a one-on-one.
13 seems to be a trend for the Valley Indians popping up in more place than one for the girls basketball team. The ladies are catching some shut eye and will wake up still undefeated at... 13-0. In the second quarter of their 46-24 victory over Ramapo, they managed to score 13 points. And finally, the Indians are 1 of 13 remaining undefeated girls basketball teams in the state of New Jersey.
In the game, PV was led by junior Brianna Wong, who finished the game with an incredible 23 points. The Indians managed to take down the Raiders in a rivalry game at the Valley. Clearly feeling it from downtown this game, Wong ended up finishing the game with a season high 5 three-pointers. Adding to the 3-point total on the night was sophomore Brianna Smith, who had two of her own and finished the game with 8 points, which ended up being the second most points on the night. However, what might end up being the most impressive stat from this game is what the box score reads for the fourth quarter in points scored by the Raiders: 0. With some strong defense, the Indians managed to hold Ramapo to no points in the fourth quarter. That type of stingy defense has been on display all season, and could be what propels PV to a title. -Emilio Quevedo
Once again, when the sun set last night in Bergen County the Indians would all go to sleep maintaining their perfect season. Yesterday morning the girls defeated Wayne Hills 78-54, to move to 12-0 now on the season.
While the final score may not be close, Wayne Hills kept it close in the first quarter, with it ending with a high scoring 20-17 quarter in favor of the Indians. After that, it was all Indians in the second, with juniors Brianna Wong and Kelly Smith leading the charge, the Indians went into the half with a comfortable 43-29 lead. After that the ladies did not look back, holding the Patriots to a mere 9 points in the third, and comfortably cruising to the 78-54 victory by the end of the game. Juniors Brianna Wong and Kelly Smith finished with 21 and 18 points respectively, and of course were aided by 11 points from Kelly Petro, including three 3-pointers. So after another great win for the girls, what is up next for them this week? Tuesday vs. Ramapo (4 PM at Valley): Coming off of a tough loss against division rivals Northern Highlands, the Raiders (5-4) will look to redeem themselves against the Indians. Thursday vs. Northern Highlands (5:30 PM at Northern Highlands): While Valley has already beaten the Highlanders this year, this will in no way be an easy task. The Highlanders are coming off a solid string of games, winning 3 of their last 5, against very formidable opponents in Ramapo, Ridgewood, and Teaneck. NJ.com has this game as one of it's "10 can't miss girls basketball games for the week of Jan. 16", and for a good reason. With an impressive 11-0 record, the Indians seemingly can't lose, and it's paid off. They currently hold down the number 1 spot in The Record's girls basketball ranking
PV managed to pick up a solid 64-37 victory over Tenafly. The girls came out fast, ending the first quarter with a convincing 18-2 lead over the Tigers. However, Tenafly did manage to fight back and won the second quarter with a much more solid performance from their squad. The second half though was all Indians again, with Junior Brianna Wong leading the charge and ending the night with a solid 15 points. Like many other games, the Kelly's, Petro and Wong, both also managed to make their impact on the game, with 13 and 12 points respectively. Tomorrow morning at 9:30 A.M. the girls will be back at it again against Wayne Hills at IHA. The Patriots have had an average season so far, keeping themselves above .500 with a 6-4 record. Valley meanwhile will look to continue its dominance on Sunday and certainly will look to maintain that top spot for the Record, throughout this week.
"She's a force of nature out there."
That was how Pascack Valley girls basketball coach described junior Brianna Wong, whose 14 points led the Indians to a 55-37 victory over River Dell in the semi-finals of the Joe Poli Tournament. Going into this game Valley had an average margin of victory of 34.5 points, however, River Dell managed to keep Valley to a 18 point victory. While Jasper admitted that the girls did not have their best shooting night, he gives full credit to River Dell for a great performance against his team. "River Dell played awesome. They had a great plan, played well, and shot the ball well. They defended us very well and were extremely patient on the defensive end," he said. Even though it may have been one of the harder games of the season, the girls are still undefeated, and sit at 6-0. Along with that junior Kelly Petro, who contributed 12 points, was also pleased with PV's effort and performance. "This was a good test for us because it was fast paced and because they played well both offensively and defensively. It was great experience for us, especially in this tournament, becuase we know how much it means for our team." Despite Jasper saying as though he felt the Indians didn't shoot particularly well, Petro, Wong and sophomore Brianna Smith all recorded double-digit point totals, and Smith connected on three three-pointers. While PV is 6-0 this year, Jasper's main focus is somewhere else—improving on previous games. "I'm just looking forward to getting to practice tomorrow to correct all the stuff that we [messed] up with today," he said. "I don't speculate or forecast anything other than that tomorrow's practice is going to make us better than we were today." Pascack Valley will be playing Northern Highlands on Thursday at 5:45 PM for the final of the Joe Poli Holiday tournament. The girls will look to maintain their perfect season status as well as pick up some silverware in the process, something they haven't managed to do the last five years of this tournament.
Continuing what has been an impressive start to the season at 2-0, PV Girls Hoops stepped up to the plate again yesterday to get themselves a backyard brawl victory against bitter rivals Old Tappan. This brings the girls to 3-0 on the season and sees them heading into another conference game this Thursday, against Northern Valley Demarest, undefeated.
Sophomore Brianna Smith continued what has been a solid start to her campaign for Valley scoring 12 points. This gives her double digit points in all three of the games so far. However, it was junior Kelly Smith and junior Brianna Wong who went off against Old Tappan with 19 and 17 points, respectively. In all three games to open up the season the girls have reached the 70 points mark and have won all of their games by at least a margin of 24 points. Along with that, the ladies have not lost even one quater of basketball, deservingly placing them in first place in the conference. If this start is any indication of what's to come, Valley will certainly be a force to be reckoned with this season. Welcome to The Smoke Signal's new Girls Basketball blog. Here you'll find out various info about the team, its players, and coach both on and off the court.
Be on the lookout for routine posts ranging from funny to serious to informative to anything in between. We'll also be sure to provide updates from games, or on developing stories. Also don't forget to follow The Smoke Signal sports department on Twitter: @pvsportscenter. We'll be updating these blogs several times a week, and even several times a day in some instances, so be sure to tell your friends and family. We'll tweet out every time we update, this way you are the first to know. Also don't forget to follow The Smoke Signal sports department on Twitter: @pvsportscenter to stay in the loop. The girls open their season today against the historically tough Teaneck. Despite that, PV managed to split last year's series against the Highwaywomen, winning the first game 60-40 but falling in the second 65-48.
This season marks the 43rd for head coach Jeff Jasper, who enters the season with over 950 wins. The game is at 7 p.m. at Teaneck High School. Stay here for updates from the game and after the game. |
AuthorJimmy Dronzek and Emilio Quevedo ArchivesCategories |