Season In Review: Fort Lee Girls Basketball

With all winter sports seasons having concluded, Fort Lee Patch now takes an in-depth look at how each team fared over the past few months.

With the fourth of five installments, the season in review segment continues with the story of 2010-2011 Fort Lee Lady Bridgemen basketball team.

The team entered the season off a 9-15 finish the year before and hoped to elevate the program to another level.

"[Last season] was one of the best for me and the program," said third-year coach Stacie Zafiris. "All the girls and myself want to build on last season's success, and try to move forward with it."

This season started slowly as the Lady Bridgemen began 0-2, but Fort Lee entered the Lyndhurst Holiday Tournament with an opportunity to repeat as champions.

They defeated Lyndhurst 48-46 in a controversial finish on the first day and advanced to the championship contest, beating Park Ridge 50-46.

It was the first time that the Lady Bridgemen had won back-to-back tournaments.  

“It feels great to be defending champs again,” said Bindi Parikh, who was named the Most Valuable Player after scoring 25 points in the championship. “We just played our hardest this year.”

“We really wanted this win,” added Brianna Mattessich, who was also named to the all-tournament first team along with Parikh. “To actually get it, feels wonderful.”

Fort Lee then lost back-to-back games to start the 2011 side of the season followed by a pair of wins at Memorial and against Westwood.

The team would win a few games and lose a few games during the middle portion of the schedule, never losing four contests in a row or winning more then two consecutive games.

The Lady Bridgemen also made a contribution to the fight against breast cancer this year when they hosted Rutherford on Feb. 19. Even though Fort Lee lost 43-41 at the buzzer, coach Stacie Zafiris looked back at the afternoon positively.

 “Extremely proud is the way to probably phrase this game,” she said. “Both from a personal viewpoint on how the girls came out today and really supported such a wonderful cause and how they performed athletically, they never gave up. The [team] really never gave up and they played their hearts out.”

But it wouldn’t be the last time that the Lady Bridgemen would meet with Rutherford. After defeating the Bulldogs for the first time in school history last year, Fort Lee would get another chance at revenge in the New Jersey Basketball State Tournament.

Fort Lee started with a 5-0 run, but Rutherford rallied back in a season-ending 55-35 loss for the Lady Bridgemen.

“I’m extremely proud of my girls,” Zafiris said after the game. “One thing that I’ve never had to worry about is them playing hard and they played hard tonight…They played with all heart and that is something that we lacked in Fort Lee for many years.  I’m proud to say that these girls have set the way for Fort Lee athletics.”

The team also had to part with six seniors after the game, including the top two scorers in Brianna Mattessich and Bindi Parikh, who left the court in tears.

“Very hard,” Zafiris remarked on saying good-bye to the seniors. “Pulling those two off the court was one of the hardest things I had to do.”

“I knew that was it,” said Mattessich looking back at the final moments of her high school basketball career. “I cried right away.”

Fort Lee completed the season with a 10-15 record with back-to-back holiday tournament wins and two consecutive appearances in the state tournament.

Lady Bridgemen coach Stacie Zafiris will look to continue the program next year with the possibility of three straight championships in the holiday tournament and a third year qualifying for the state tournament.

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