Sports
East Brunswick's Cinderella run comes to an end
The East Brunswick girls basketball team fell to North Brunswick, 46-30, in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament semifinals after defeating second-seeded Edison, 38-37, in the first round
Even though her team’s season ended yesterday, East Brunswick girls basketball coach Katie Motusesky had a positive outlook on the year.
That’s because before falling to seventh-seeded North Brunswick, 46-30, in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament quarterfinals at Middlesex County College, East Brunswick delivered the shock of the tournament.
As the 15th seed, East Brunswick stunned second-seeded Edison, which was one of the favorites to go to the final, 38-37, in the first round. With 3.4 seconds remaining, senior Shannon Nulty was fouled after converting a layup and then followed with the game-winning foul shot.
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“We had a game plan and the girls executed it,” said Motusesky, whose team defeated Edison for the second-straight year in the first round. “We talked the whole year about putting together a full game and we did that. We went in with the attitude that we are the 15 seed and they are the two seed, and they beat us both times so we had nothing to lose. We played a couple of the other top teams in the county and were close and we thought that if we could get over the hump, we had a shot at knocking somebody off.
“That win was huge for us. Obviously, we would have liked to have beaten North Brunswick, but that win against Edison meant a lot to us and our season.”
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The Bears 9-15 record is deceiving because they had two 1-point losses to Woodbridge, which is playing in the GMCT semifinals, another 1-point loss to Old Bridge and a 2-point loss to Perth Amboy.
This wasn’t East Brunswick’s most talented team, but Motusesky found a way to squeeze every ounce of potential from all her players.
Senior guard Elise Roughan went from a decent player to one of the top shooters in the county by scoring 15.3 points per game and hitting 58 3-pointers.
Despite being only 5-7, junior Kaitlin Potkulski held her own in the paint against some of the taller girls in the county.
Hard-nosed defense was what kept East Brunswick competitive and girls like senior guard Rachel Gala, junior guard Angela Marrone, and senior guard Cassie Riccio led a defense that allowed just 41.7 points per game.
“We pride ourselves on that because a lot of times we’re up against teams that have more talent or maybe are taller and faster than us,” Motusesky said. “We always talk about playing 32 minutes or as close to it as we can.”
