The Immaculate Conception girls basketball team hit a bump in the road when they saw their three-year run come to an end in winning the Essex County Tournament title.
In the last three years, the Lions have been the queen of Essex County but have stumbled in their goal to win a state tournament title.
Immaculate Conception girls finished off one of their goals with the state sectional title on Monday against Gill St. Bernard’s.
And on Friday, the Lions (21-9) traveled to Rutgers University to win the school’s first group state title and in their way was Gloucester Catholic.
Mission accomplished with a 41-30 victory.
Lions Filled with ‘Emotion’ in Victory
“It is definitely emotional and the first time in history that Immaculate has won a state championship,” said senior Nila Giraud. “It’s just a lot of emotion flowing now and the last game in high school ever.”
Giraud, whose next stop will be the University of Albany, said the impetus or the state run was the devastating 43-41 loss to West Orange in the ECT title game on Feb. 22.
“After the county championship we lost, we knew that we couldn’t lose especially since this being the last year,” said the senior.
IC Gets the Ending They Desired
Lions head coach Jimmy Kreie was especially happy that his team was able to finish off with the victory. “I’m just glad that we wrote the chapter that we wanted to do,” said Kreie. “I watched them succeed one more time.”
Immaculate Conception had good first and fourth quarters that handed the team, players and coaches the first and final state championship. The school announced last month that it would be closing its doors in June, the 100th year of the school.
The Lions did it with balanced scoring and suffocating defense. Juniors, Nilah Rivera and London Caldwell, led the Immaculate Conception with 11 and 10 points respectively. All five scorers registered six or more points. The Lions defense shut down Gloucester Catholic top scorer, Jahzara Green. She was limited to nine points after averaging 18 points per game before the group final.
Rivera said the goal was to attack the Gloucester Catholic defense that was done effectively by Rivera and Caldwell. “Definitely that was the game plan to get to the rim and make sure we put more pressure on their defense especially in the paint,” said the junior.
Immaculate Conception’s Solidarity the Key
The junior point guard added that the team’s cohesion was a major part of the team’s triumph this season. “I love them so much,” said Rivera. “The reason we have so much success is that we play for each other. I’m super proud that we did it in the last year for this team to make history. Especially to do it for the seniors who have been here for four years.”
The Lions got off to a fast start and led at one point, 11-1, to start the second quarter, but Gloucester Catholic came storming back to take a small lead (17-15). Immaculate Conception held serve 18-17 at halftime.
Despite a lead that shrunk to one point, the Lions talked about staying aggressive at halftime and playing like they were down by double digits no matter what the score is. “We just wanted to keep the energy up,” said Giraud about the halftime talk. “We always play like we are down 10.”
Second Half Get the Ball to Giraud
In addition, the Lions’ second half plot was to get the ball into Giraud. While Giraud, the team’s leading scorer, was limited to only six points, four in the second half, the result was that it helped to get some more room on the perimeter for the guards. “We thought we would play an inside-outside game going inside to Nila and then getting open outside shots,” said Rivera.
Rivera added that she felt ‘confident’ coming into the game but was reassured in the third quarter. Immaculate Conception contained the Gloucester Catholic comeback to start the second half and led 30-26 heading into the fourth quarter. “I know going into the game I was confident enough,” said Rivera. “I would say in the third quarter I was confident that the momentum would carry us to the end of the game.”
And with the Lions containing the Gloucester Catholic offense in the fourth quarter, the Immaculate Conception’s other senior, Camille Miley, scored three of her eight points in the deciding final eight minutes. Combined with Caldwell’s four points, the Lions continued to drive to the basket and pulled away.
