High-Tempo Offense Benefits Dwight Morrow in 55-39 Win Over Lady Bridgemen

Junior guard Melissa Reid scored 14 points in her return as Dwight Morrow returned to the win column in a 55-39 road win at Fort Lee.

After losing three consecutive games, the Lady Raiders started the night by scoring the first nine points of the evening.

“That is the start we try to have every game,” said Dwight Morrow head coach Don Osbourne. “Some games it works and some games it doesn’t. I thought the energy was great.”

On the other side of the floor, Fort Lee committed four turnovers during that timeframe as the Lady Bridgemen  were forced to play from behind.

“They’re a really fast team and we can’t run with them,” said Lady Bridgemen senior guard Brianna Mattessich. “The game plan was to slow down the tempo and we definitely didn’t do that.”

The high tempo pace of the game continued throughout the first two quarters as both teams continued to run up and down the floor.

However, the Lady Bridgemen and Lady Raiders struggled to make lay-ups and secure rebounds during the first half.

“It was horrible,” Mattessich said about those two phases of the game. “It was one of our worst…we’re not going to win any games with that.”

“It was a lack of concentration,” coach Osbourne said. “I’m definitely not happy with the way [we] rebounded and the way we did layups. It was just unacceptable and very embarrassing.”

But despite the turnovers and missed lay-ups, Fort Lee was down by just six points at the half.

Starting the third quarter, the Dwight Morris Lady Raiders kept up the intensity, rallying to increase the lead to double digits.

Melissa Reid scored nine of her 14 points during the quarter in her return from an academic suspension.

“She did a great job of stepping up when she needed to,” said Zafiris.

Dwight Morrow went on to win the game 55-39 behind Reid and another 15 points from senior forward Christina Jones.

The Fort Lee Lady Bridgemen had three players in double figures. Brianna Mattessich and senior forward Bindi Parikh had 12 points. Parikh also corralled 13 rebounds in the loss, and junior forward Anthe Nikolaidis scored a season-high 10 points.

“We took a lot more shots which I thought at New Milford we didn’t do,” Zafiris said. “Anthe scored a career high which is great. So there are positives but we really need to improve on the negatives in order to compete. “

Moments after the win, coach Don Osbourne was already working on a negative that he saw with his team. After the Lady Raiders were walking on the floor in the final quarter and nearly got called for an inbounding violation, Osbourne looked to teach an immediate lesson.

“Discipline. We try to do everything the right way every single time,” said the head coach. “We’re not allowed to walk on the floor. It is very embarrassing and out of character.”

Dwight Morrow will now face River Dell on Thursday night as Fort Lee will stay at home to host Lakeland at 7 p.m.