Girls Basketball: Timothy Christian wins 7th straight

Timothy Christian pushed its winning streak to seven games by rolling past visiting Ridgewood 42-30 on Saturday.

Tessa Bosman scored 14 points for the Trojans (7-1, 4-0 Metro Suburban). Senior Cassidy Block scored 10 points and junior Stephanie Kuiper chipped in nine.

“Tessa started off with a rough start,” said Trojans coach Ryan DeKoekkoek. “She took the ACTs this morning so her brain was fried for about four hours. In the first couple minutes, she missed about six layups but then you say that and you look up (on the scoreboard) and she had 14.”

The Trojans jumped out to an 11-2 lead after one quarter but the Rebels outscored them in the second 9-3 to get to within three at 14-11 at the half.

In the third quarter, the Trojans extended the lead to 19-12 when Trojans junior Tessa Bosman made one of two free throws. But the Rebels responded with back-to-back jumpers from juniors Ines Grepo and Jackie Stroud to pull within three at 19-16 with 3 minutes, 27 seconds left in the third.

From there, the Trojans went on a 7-2 run to extend the lead once again to seven at 25-18 after three quarters.

In the fourth, Bosman took control of the game for the Trojans by scoring on three straight possessions, including a three-point play to extend the lead to 12 at 32-20. Shortly after, with the Trojans ahead 34-25, senior Amber Scheidt nailed a three-pointer to give the Trojans a 37-25 lead with just over four minutes left.

The Rebels were led by Stroud’s 16 points.

“As a whole, we did not play very good basketball,” DeKoekkoek said. “From a coach’s standpoint, that’s frustrating. We’re a better team and I felt we played down to a level at times. But at other times, I felt they were better than us. But we were able to do something in the second half and finally get a sense of offense going.”

The Trojans focused on their inside game after the break.

“Toward the second half, we said, ‘Ladies, we’ve got to stop messing around,’” said DeKoekkoek. “‘Get the ball in the post and just go to work,’ and thankfully we got going. I said during a timeout, ‘If anybody takes a three-point shot, you’re going to sit on the bench. Throw the ball in the post.’ That was our focus.”

“In the first half, our team our team was lacking emotion and talking on the court,” Bosman said. “But in the second half and during halftime, we really pumped it up and came out strong (in the second half).”

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