CLARK, NJ- The Arthur L. Johnson High School Crusaders girls varsity basketball team watched their lead disappear against the Brearley High School (Kenilworth) Bears in the final three minutes. Instinctively they knew it was time to unite, tighten their connection, push hard and fight back to regain their edge.
In a crazy sequence including four lead changes in the fourth quarter, including two ties, the Crusaders provided just enough offense and survived a late scare to stun the Bears 49-48 Thursday night in Clark.
The craziness began with Brearley grabbing their first lead of the game with 3:51 left, they needed a boost. Freshman Dominka Kosiek did just that, racing in the Brearley zone, providing a key basket and was fouled. She completed the three-point play to tie the game at 43-43 with 2:32 left, but it was what happened right after that changed the momentum.
The split-second thinking of junior Lily Gull got Johnson a key play they needed to get the Crusaders an extra boost when needed.
Gull, who missed Tuesday night’s game after being sick, made a quick move after freshman Dominka Kosiek tied the game with a three-point play at 43-43 with 2:32 left. She tipped a Brearley inbound pass and went up for the layup and was fouled in the process to give her team a 45-43 lead with 2:29 left in the fourth quarter.
“I knew [Brearley] was 14-2 and they weren’t going to quit,” Johnson head coach Joe Marino said. “Our girls also knew that in order for them to pull this out, they couldn’t let up tonight. They had to have a nose for the ball and they did that. They got after it near the end. They finished tonight the way they were supposed to.”
She helped her team re-take the lead, at 47-45, with 1:38 left in the fourth quarter. She credits her team’s knocking down their shots to cap off a crazy game.
“We’ve lost a lot of games like this [close games against bigger teams],” Gull said. “We were tired of losing in the last quarter and we wanted to just finish it out. We knew it was going to be hard, but we had to keep working.”
She led her team with 15 points in the win.
“It’s her athleticism,” Marino said of Gull’s performance. “She works hard all the time. She’s a good leader and all the girls look up to her.”
Senior Bailey Rosenmeier helped provide a key insurance basket to make it 49-45 Johnson with 0:58 left in the fourth quarter. Johnson managed to drain 22 seconds off the clock with a key defensive stop, but Brearley wasn’t done.
Micaela Etlinger drained a three-pointer with 0:04 left in the fourth quarter to cut the Johnson lead to 49-48. Brearley got the ball on a Johnson turnover after the ball went out of bounds and had one final chance. Johnson burned their final timeout with 0:02 left.
On the ensuing Brearley possession, they couldn’t get close to a setup for a shot as the clock ran out.
Full Coverage of Johnson Girls Varsity Basketball Victory over Brearley HS Here
