Brookdale Women's Basketball Play For The Region XIX Title

Article is courtesy of Mike Ready, a journalist for the Jersey Sporting News and Middletown Patch, who covers Brookdale Community College athletics.

LINCROFT – When you're ranked No.4 in the nation and having won 27-straight games, you better be ready to play come tournament time.

With the bulls eye painted squarely on their backs, top-seeded Brookdale held on to beat No.5 seed Middlesex County 71-66 for their 28th win a row, Thursday night at Collins Arena.

With the win, Brookdale (28-2, 19-0) moves into the NJCAA Region XIX DIII final where it will face No.2 seed and sixth ranked Cumberland County (26-2, 18-2), Saturday 7:30 at Collins Arena.

Brookdale handed Cumberland their only two losses of the season beating them by 11 and 10 points respectively. The Dukes have won eight in a row since, including their 71-62 victory in Thursday's semifinal game versus third-seeded Camden (20-8, 13-6).  

Freshman point guard Paxton Reddington (St. John Vianney) and sophomore Marina Lukianov (Howell H.S.) each scored 18 points to lead the Blues, while sophomore center Samantha Carlson (Manalapan H.S.) added 14 points and freshman forward Marya Trapp (Red Bank Regional ) had 12 points.

It was a one-point game at the half after Middlesex' talented shooting guard Quorea Pearyer's second 3-pointer of the first half cut Brookdale's lead to 34-33. Reddington had a team-high 12 points in the half, including two 3-pointers.

Middlesex went up by two, 56-54, at 8:11 of the second half before the Blues went on a 13-0 run to go ahead 67-56 at the 5:06 mark. Carlson accounted for six points and Trapp five during the spurt.

Jen Shereyka's 3-pointer pulled the Colts to within eight, 67-59 before a Trapp free throw and a Carlson  shot underneath stretched the Blues lead to 11, 70-59, with 2:41 remaining in the game.

However Middlesex wasn't done as they then ran off seven straight points, including Pearyer's third 3-pointer of the night and Shereyka's two free throws- after being fouled on a 3-point attempt -to pull the Colts to within four, 70-66, with 1:03 left on the clock.

Trapp looked to have had a clean block on Shereyka's 3-point shot - which would've iced the game - but she was called for the very questionable foul and Shereyka hit 2-of-3 from the line to keep the Colts dwindling hopes alive.  

After a jump ball gave Middlesex possession, Reddington grabbed the biggest rebound of the night - possibly of her career - off a Pearyer miss, and was immediately fouled sending her to the line for two shots. She hit the first of two before missing on her second attempt and the Colts grabbed the rebound with 30 seconds remaining in the game; down by five.

Trapp then forced a jump ball off a Pearyer miss with possession going to the Blues, and Middlesex called their last timeout. The Blues then inbounded the ball and ran out the clock for the win.

"Pearyer and Shereyka are really tough players," Reddington said. "But we just kept our heads together and guarded them the best we could. We were prepared for them and knew what they're capable of doing."

Reddington pulled down eight boards on the night, including three off the offensive glass in the second quarter, and had two steals. Trapp finished with team highs in rebounds (11), blocks (3) and assists with seven. Carlson grabbed a team high 5-offensive boards - seven total - and blocked one shot while Lukianov added six rebounds and a block.

Sophomore guard Nadia Szaniszlo (Keansburg H.S.) helped keep the game close in the first half grabbing five rebounds and blocking three shots. Sophomore guard Lauren Bowler (Red Bank Regional) added five points, four boards and two steals playing another solid game.

Pearyer had a game high 30-points in the losing effort.

"They all want to beat the No.1 team so we kind of play with a chip on our shoulder," Reddington said. "This was the closest game we've played in a long time and it showed us we can't just go into every game thinking we're going to win it. We have to keep our composure and play the way we know we're capable of playing; this was a good test for us before the final."

Just in the month of February, Brookdale has outscored its previous six opponents by an average of 31.7 points a game.

This will be the Brookdale women's first appearance in the NJCAA Region XIX DIII Tournament finals since the 2010-11 season when they defeated Northampton 69-44 for the title. They then went on to place third in the national championship, losing to the eventual champions Anoka-Ramsey 64-54.  

By: Mike Ready

Follow @getmready

The team is next in action on Saturday, March 1st against Cumberland Community College at home for a 7:30pm tip-off for the Region XIX Championship.