The Alternative Press

NEW PROVIDENCE, NJ - In their final tune-up before the state tournament begins, the New Providence girls' basketball team fell to Middletown North, 52-40, on Thursday at New Providence High School.

Pioneer freshman Sydney Morang led all scorers with 15 points, while Middletown North's Emily Lavin led the Tigers to the win with 14.

"We knew we were going to get a tough team," New Providence head coach Cap Pazdera said. "They play in a real tough conference, they're a big school, their bigger then us. They come from a conference with all good basketball teams. I knew we were in for a good game. I was hoping for solid competition and we got it."

The teams were tied at 13 after the first quarter, where Lavin scored six of her 14 points for North.

New Providence was outscored in every quarter for the rest of the game, seeing offensive contributions from only three players: Morang, Cassandra Squeri and Kaycee de Voogd.

Pazdera said the team is going to have to worked harder than they did on Thursday if they want to be successful in next week's state tournament game.

"We got outworked on the little things, rebounding, turning the ball over, screening," he said. "We just didn't do the little things well tonight. So we're going to do that better and we're going to do it a lot harder."

The Pioneers will host Newark Vocational in the first round of next week's North Jersey 2, Group 1 first round.

The loss to the Tigers was New Providence's second consecutive defeat, the first time they were defeated in back-to-back games all season.

The veteran head coach for the Pioneers is not concerned with the losing streak, all but guaranteeing that his team, which fell to 20-4, will play hard in the state tournament.

"You can expect from us that we're going to play a lot harder than we did tonight," Pazdera said. "We're not going to get outworked on the little things like we did today. We will run a better offense and hopefully be a little bit better defensively."

New Providence's state game against Newark Vocational will be played on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. from New Providence High School.