The most successful girls basketball season in a long time came to an end last night. Before a deafening crowd of Hillbilly faithful, the girls succumbed to a potent Belvidere team which possessed a formidable three-point shot and a near-perfect free throw percentage, 53-50. The Verona boys, who traveled to Boonton, also lost in the quarterfinal round, 87-63.
The Verona girls got into foul trouble early on. Starters Michelle Petronaci, Amanda Langan and DonnaJo DiNorcia all had 3 fouls before the end of the half; Langan fouled out early in the third period and Petronaci with about a minute left in the game. Senior Erin Percevault more than stepped into the breach, hitting four clutch baskets in a row to keep Verona in the game up until the final minute. With Verona up by one, Petronaci’s final foul sent her to the bench, and Belvidere sunk 2 free throws. An intentional foul by Verona with 39 seconds left resulted in another 2 points for Belvidere, sealing the win.
In the boys’ game, Brian Farrell was high-scorer for Verona with 23, Justin Bruso and Noah Herman chipped in with 14 and 13 respectively. See the Star-Ledger box scores here. Note: Luke Sniatkowski had 4 points and 4 rebounds. He was mistakenly ommitted from the box scores and his points attributed to Matt Malanga.
Below is a video, caught by our photographer Bo Kirby, of senior Erin Percevault scoring two of her eight points. And you don’t want to miss Kirby’s video of a pumped-up Verona fan leading the faithful in a spontaeous “wave” cheer on MyVeronaNJ’s YouTube page.
