Girl’s basketball opened the South, Group 2 Tournament Tuesday night by hosting the Buena Chiefs. The one-seed Pirates took down the 16-seed Buena girls by a score of 60-16 to advance in front of a raucous home crowd.
“The crowd definitely pumped us up even though we were the one-seed and they were the 16-seed,” Marisa DiLeo (17 points) said. “It just gave us a little bit more confidence to show that we were the one-seed and we deserved it. It was fun.”
Cinnaminson raced out to an 11-0 lead that took getting the jitters out before hitting that mark.
“The first five minutes you could tell, everyone was a little bit off, because of the crowd and it was the first playoff game,” head coach Bret Jenkins said. “I thought it was important to get those jitters out and to get everyone in to get a feel for the crowd and the gist of the playoffs.”
It took until 11-0 before Buena finally scored its first point, off a free throw, en route to a 13-5 Pirates lead after one.
“I thought the crowd was special. The girls deserved it,” Jenkins said. “We used the boy’s game second to get the crowd out. We ran out of shirts within a half hour. Three sections were full. The girls deserved every second of this, getting to play in front of that crowd.”
The Pirates outscored Buena 28-5 in the second to lead 41-10 at the break.
“We mainly worked on our plays because since this was going to be an easier game we got more people in,” Fiona Flynn (10 points) said. “We got everything down, every last detail. When it gets harder, more intense, we’ll be ready to face that. We also worked on our shots because we knew they played a 2-3, so we knew we would get outside shots.”
A 14-5 third quarter saw the Pirates lead 55-15 heading into the fourth. The two teams combined for a total of six points in the fourth as the Pirates emptied the bench and slowed the pace of the game as much as possible en route to the 60-16 win.
The Pirates had three players score in double figures as Marisa DiLeo led the way with 17. Anne O’Malley and Fiona Flynn contributed 12 and 10, respectively.
“Being able to play this many people in a playoff game really benefits,” Jenkins said. “It gets the first-game jitters out of the way. You want to make sure that everyone is ready to go, all 14 that are able to dress, ready to go at anytime we need them.”
Ten of the 14 players who saw time on the court tonight for the Pirates scored at least one point, including seniors Ally Herron, Lexi Colella and Anna Saginario.
“It was definitely important,” DiLeo said. “Ally Herron got in. She shot a three. She always jokes around at practice that she’s a shooter. I guess we have to believe her now. It was fun to see everyone play, get some experience and get some points.”
Plenty of younger players played valuable minutes tonight.
“Hopefully this game got most of their nerves out,” Flynn said. “We told them not to worry about it, just play the game. I think this gets them ready for down the road.”
Cinnaminson will host #8 Lower Cape May (defending SJ2 champions) on Thursday, March 3 at 6pm in the second round of the South, Group 2 Tournament. Check Cinn City Sports Wednesday for a full preview of the second round game.
“The fact that we don’t have to get on a bus, drive an hour or so away, we’ll be home and ready to go for the game,” DiLeo said.
“The seniors told the younger players that even though we worked hard to get the one-seed, this game probably wasn’t going to be the hardest, but as we progress on better teams are going to show up and we’re going to have to play as hard as we can to win.”
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| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buena (4-19) | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 16 |
| Cinnaminson (21-6) | 13 | 28 | 14 | 5 | 60 |
Pirates Scoring:
Marisa DiLeo – 17
Anne O’Malley – 12
Fiona Flynn – 10
Tori Robinson – 5
Maddie Parrish – 5
Maddie Ogden – 3
Ally Herron – 3
Lexi Colella – 2
Anna Saginario – 2
Kelly Kane – 1
