Fort Lee’s ‘March Madness’ Ends With One-Point Championship Win

Porter & Yee Insurance narrowly defeated the top-seeded Silly Rabbits Tuesday in a mostly defensive game, 14-13, to capture the Fort Lee Girls Recreation Basketball League’s 7th/8th Grade Division championship at .

Porter & Yee, who never trailed in the game, held off a fourth quarter comeback bid by the regular season champs.

Porter & Yee's Sarah Diaz led all scorers with 12 points, and Victoria Martinez chipped in the other two. Martinez was in foul trouble for most of the second half and fouled out early in the fourth quarter.

That’s when Silly Rabbits began to mount their comeback, with point guard Jackie Mckenna and Yanize Lopez hitting back-to-back shots to cut the lead to just one point. But solid defensive stops by Nina Conticello, Caitlyn Yee and Nirvana Mejia held off the any hopes of a full comeback.

Nicole Maldonado played an outstanding defensive game with four blocked shots and two points. Shelby Cohen found a way to get loose under the basket, losing her defender and cutting the lead to 14-13.

But with just 8.1 seconds left on the clock, Silly Rabbits missed two foul shots, and Sarah Diaz pulled down a rebound and dribbled out the clock to clinch the ultimate victory for the yellow shirts of Porter & Yee.

Other contributors in the first half for Porter & Yee included Katrina Benjamin, Karen Fernandez, Mikako Inaba, Anahid Saadati, Zamirah Salim and Minjin Jeong, all of whom played great defense.

Silly Rabbits held Porter & Yee to a scoreless second quarter, led by Arana Asatrian, Selina Bilge, Christie Kim, Valerie Manzano and Kiara Sanchez.

“I had a feeling this game was going to come down to a final possession, and it did,” said league president Michael Klein. “It was all I can ask for: a one-point championship game. A few bounces here and there, and we easily could have had a different result. It's a shame one team had to lose.”

Klein added, “It's sad to see the games end; 10 happy faces and 10 sad faces.”
“This has been our most successful season,” he said. “We had 262 girls, which is the most girls ever, and at both the 6th and 7th grade level really capped off a great season.”

Klein saluted all of the league’s 47 dedicated coaches for putting so much time and effort into the season.

“Every Coach was a tremendous asset to the program, especially Leah 'BLL' Rosa, who did a great job behind the scenes and helped me run the league,” Klein said. “It was a total team effort by all. I could not have done this on my own.  I can only hope for a repeat season in 2013.”

Scoring Summary

Porter & Yee Insurance
Sarah Diaz, 12
Victoria Martinez, 2

Silly Rabbits
Jackie Mckenna, 4
Yanize Lopez, 2
Norkelies Pimentel, 3
Nicole Maldonado, 2
Shelby Cohen, 2

For more information, visit the Fort Lee Girls Recreation Basketball League's website.

On Saturday, Norm’s Ice Cream defeated Starr, Darcy & Starr, 9-4, to capture the league’s 3rd/4th Grade Division title at the middle school, and Step Mar beat Pomodoro Pizza, 22-15, to become 5th/6th Grade Division champs.

Klein thanked special guest Lt. Col. Kevin McKelvy “for his beautiful rendition of the ‘Star Spangled Banner’” prior to tipoff Saturday.

Here’s how Norm’s Ice Cream coach and Fort Lee Patch blogger David Sarnoff described Saturday’s games:

Norm’s Ice Cream was crowned the 3rd/4th Grade league champions at the Fort Lee Girls Recreation Basketball League Finals on Saturday, March 24, before a boisterous and large crowd, at the Lewis F. Cole Middle School gym. The championship game was a hard fought battle between Norm’s Ice Cream (Black Jerseys) and Starr, Darcy & Starr (Purple Jerseys), culminating in a 9-4 victory for Norm’s. 

The game was tied 4-4 at the end of the third quarter, and in the middle of the fourth, Norm’s pulled ahead for good.  Both teams played excellent defense and hustled throughout the game.  Norm’s finished the season with an undefeated record of 12-0. Starr, Darcy & Starr won five out of their last six games on their way to the finals.

Sarnoff and Gerry Glass coached Norm’s Ice Cream. McKelvy and Nick Gentile assisted them during the season.  David Samson and Douglas Lopez coached Starr, Darcy and Starr.