The Middletown High School South girls’ basketball team hoped it had the makings of a long state championship run.
“I think the overall team effort is how we pulled this off, especially defensively,” sophomore forward Kayla Richardson said. “In our press, everyone rotated well. Even in the times that we were down, we pushed through it and never gave up.”
The confidence came from a 58-46 victory over Edison High School on Feb. 27 in the first round of the NJSIAA Central Jersey, Group 4 tournament in Middletown. Richardson had 10 points and six rebounds in the game. Sophomore Stephanie Mayerhofer had 11 points and seven rebounds for the Middletown South, while junior Isla Brennan led the team with 19 points.
Richardson was happy with the way the team played in the game, stating that it didn’t want to take Edison lightly. Edison had just played in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament title game on Feb. 22.
“I think we were nervous about this game,” Richardson said. “We knew that they were a physical team. They’ve beaten some good teams this year, and they were on a hot streak, so we knew that they wanted this game bad. We just wanted to use this confidence to be a better team going forward.”
Middletown South traveled to Colts Neck High School for the quarterfinals of the state sectional tournament on March 1, when it lost, 49-44. Junior Eve Pirie led the team with 13 points, while Richardson contributed nine points.
Middletown South ended the season with a 12-13 record.
