On Tuesday, The Montclair Girls Basketball Team suffered a frustrating 47-37 defeat to Payne Tech in a very physical game. The seemingly large margin of victory is deceiving due to Montclair’s collapse in the last few minutes of the game while playing the foul game. They turned the ball over multiple possessions in a row while Payne Tech refused to miss their free throws. Montclair jumped out to an early 10-8 lead at the end of Q1, but they struggled in the second quarter as they scored only 7 while giving up 16. Montclair went into halftime trailing 24-17, and they played right on par with Payne Tech in Q3. Both teams scored 7 points and Montclair went into the fourth quarter trailing 31-24. Montclair started Q4 very strong and brought the game within 3 points multiple times throughout the quarter. Montclair’s strong Q4, excluding the last few minutes, was marked by defensive pressure and forced turnovers. Montclair spent the majority of the quarter in zone defense while also mixing in a decent amount of half-court trap defense. This defensive adjustment from Coach Connell gave Payne Tech fits for most of the quarter. Star junior Savannah Seawell prevented PT from entering the paint in this quarter and the whole game while Montclair’s guards held down the perimeter. Montclair’s zone did start to fall apart towards the end of the quarter because nobody was rotating to the weak side, leaving someone wide open for PT multiple times throughout the quarter. However, Seawell got 3 blocks in the quarter and Montclair senior point guard and pesky defender Lizzy Giordano kept Payne Tech’s star sophomore guard Kayla Butler in check for the majority of the quarter. Butler runs PT’s offense as the main facilitator, but is also a lethal scorer. Despite Giordano’s strong defense, Butler dropped 17 points on Montclair.
However, her strongest performance came at the line in the fourth quarter. Butler didn’t make a single basket in the fourth, but she went 6-6 at the line in the quarter and her clutch shooting was the main reason for Montclair’s collapse at the end of the game. Montclair was trailing by 4 with not much time to spare, so they had to play the foul game. However, every time PT was inbounding they were somehow able to get the ball to Butler. Montclair was forced to foul and she made every free throw, ruining Montclair’s chances at stealing a win on an off-night offensively. This off-night was mainly due to unforced turnovers and Montclair’s reluctance to shoot the 3 ball. All of Montclair’s three 3-point makes came from sophomore guard Anna O’Keefe. Because of Montclair’s refusal to shoot from beyond the arc, PT could send doubles, and often triples, at Montclair’s offensive engine Savannah Seawell. There were still multiple positives to come from this game for Montclair including their very strong defense, especially in the fourth quarter. If Montclair can apply the same pressure while in a zone defense or when sending traps while also remaining disciplined, they will be able to play lockdown defense for the entirety of the remainder of the season. With this loss, Montclair moved to 2-2 on the year and will look to bounce back and apply their strong defensive scheme at Verona on Thursday.