The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
UPDATE: The sectional finals game against Piscataway has been moved to 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 10, at FHS.
The Lady Warriors advanced to the NJSIAA Group 4, Section 2 finals March 6 with a decisive victory over the Westfield High School Blue Devils, 67-56.
The Lady Warriors led by as many as 17 points. The Blue Devils were able to cut Franklin’s 10-point lead at the beginning of the second quarter into a 2-point lead, but the Lady Warriors were able to regroup.
Coach Audrey Taylor said the key to her squad winning was that they were “all engaged, all in synch.”
“They moved the ball well, and everybody was part of the offense,” she said. “When we’re all engaged and we’re all in synch, we’re a strong team.”
Taylor said the girls let emotions over bad calls in the second quarter get the better of them, which led to the erosion of their lead.
Another factor in the win, Taylor said, was negating Westfield’s ability to get open players behind the Lady Warrior’s defense.
“They’re very fundamentally sound and they do a lot of back door cuts, so that’s one thing we wanted to make sure we prepared for,” Taylor said.
The Lady Warriors will face either Piscataway or Phillipsburg – who play March 7 – in the finals, which will be at home on March 9.
Taylor said her team has no preference in who they play.
“We never played Piscataway, so that would be nice for a new team,” she said. “We played Philipsburg twice this year, we won both games, but that means nothing.”
Lady Warriors vs. Westfield 3-6-15
