On Thursday, January 24, the 9-4 Montclair Girls Basketball Team faced North Star Academy at home in Essex County Tournament Preliminary Round 3. With the 30-24 victory, the Mounties improve to 10-4 and move on to the first round of Counties against Montclair Immaculate.
The game started off close, with the score at the end of the first tied at 7 a piece. In the second quarter and third quarter, the Mounties dominated. With the efforts of Junior Savannah Seawell, who ended the night with 16 points, and Senior Point Guard Lizzy Giordano, who went scoreless, but was able to control the pace of the game on both sides of the ball.
North Star did a good job at making the Mounties fight for a win, however. Two big 3’s from NSA gave the visiting section a lot of hype, forcing a Mountie timeout with 5 minutes remaining in the forth, cutting the Mounties lead down to 23-19.
But Montclair was able to silence their crowd with clutch layups by Junior Shai Uzelle, who ended the game with 4 points, and Sophomore Carla Osborne, who also had 4, extended the Mountie lead to 27-21.
North Star put together a few gritty plays on offense and defense, making the score 27-24, in Montclair’s favor with 30 second left.
A few Montclair clutch free throws from Sophomores Anna O’Keefe and Osborne were able to ice the game with a final score of 30-24.