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Sports

Berntsen Powers Cougars to County Finals

Chatham girls basketball team will take on Morris Catholic in championship game.

The girls basketball team moved one step closer to its goal of attaining a Morris County title as it surpassed Jefferson High, 54-39, in a Morris County Tournament semifinal round matchup at Farleigh Dickenson University on Friday night.

While Chatham’s interior defense was tested by Jefferson’s size and physicality all game, the Cougars defensive game plan worked to perfection, sealing their second consecutive MCT finals appearance.

“What I told them before the game was, pressure and pinch,” Chatham head coach Joe Gaba said after the game. “Pressure the ball so they can’t make an easy post entry pass and pinch down from the weak side, so if they do get it in, it’s a tough pass and if they do get it in, they have to score in a crowd.”

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Chatham came out strong on Friday, outscoring Jefferson 18-10 in the first quarter. But the scoring came to a halt early in the second quarter as neither team found the hoop for the quarter's first three minutes.

With scoring at a premium in the second, Jefferson would start getting its inside game working as forward Kristen Swerzenski led all scorers with six points in the quarter, helping Jefferson outscore Chatham 8-6 and head into halftime trailing 24-18.

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After a third quarter which saw Jefferson again outscore Chatham, this time by a count of 14-13, Chatham proved to be too much in the game's final frame.

“We just showed our composure and I think our experience playing here and experience playing in big games was evident,” Gaba said. “I don’t think we got phased when they made their mini runs at us.”

Jefferson’s defensive plan was to negate Chatham guard Amanda Berntsen, and they executed it as well as they could have hoped, as Berntsen finished the game with just eight points.

“We were really happy with the way that we played in the first quarter, in the second quarter we kind of diminished our lead a little,” Berntsen said, “but we just kept playing strong and we just thought about how bad we want to win this county tournament. We just went out and played as tough as we could and gave every last bit of energy.”

While Berntsen was nullified, Chatham’s Kelsey Hart and Lauren Winschuh picked up the slack as Hart battled to a game high 19 points and Winschuh 10.

“That’s what makes us a complete team,” Gaba said. "[Berntsen] was definitely nullified. They did a great job of taking her out of the game and she had to work for every point that she got, but people like Hart and Winschuh stepping up and getting the points that they got, and Kelsey Davies and Sam Kennedy even without the ball. Hopefully moving forward, that makes us that much more difficult of a team to defend.”

In the game's final minutes, Chatham’s experience became evident as Hart and Berntsen hit back-to-back three pointers, leading Chatham to a 45-36 lead and sealing the Chatham win.

“The other players on the team played great today,” Berntsen said. “I have to give all of the credit to them.”

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