Despite a close first half, the Parsippany High girls basketball team fell to the Chatham 56-40 on Thursday in Parsippany.
“Parsippany is a tough place to play,” Chatham coach Joe Gaba said. “They are small, quick, and good defenders.”
Parsippany proved just that in the first quarter.
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Both teams came out defensively strong and aggressive, each implementing a full court press for most of the quarter.
With less than 20 seconds off the clock, captain Kelsey Principe sunk the first basket of the game, putting the Red Hawks up 2-0. Principe had eight points on the day.
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Ashley Burroughs, Rebecca Zimmerman, and Kayla Picinich each added a bucket and the Red Hawks trailed 9-8 heading into the second quarter.
Parsippany quickly fell 18-10 halfway through the quarter when Ashley Burroughs hit a long two point shot to spur the Red Hawk momentum. Shortly thereafter Kelsey Principe hit two in row and brought the Parsippany deficit to four points.
Burroughs then hit another long two to bring the Red Hawks within two points of Chatham. After trading possessions Parsippany headed into half time trailing Chatham 24-20.
But Chatham came out characteristically strong in the second half. With the officials calling a tight game, some of Parsippany’s key players got into foul trouble early in the half.
“We got into some foul trouble and I had to make some switches,” Parsippany coach Mark Gnapp said. “Our matchups weren’t great and they were able to take advantage.”
The Cougar defense capitalized on mismatches and held the Red Hawks to seven points in the third quarter.
Kayla Pininich and Alyssa Kastrunis provided the crowd with excitement by each hitting a three point shot. But with the Red Hawks mismatched and the team’s defense easily penetrated, Parsippany could not bounce back from the third quarter damage.
“We did some poor things defensively and we are going to have to work on that in practice,” Gnapp said.
The Red Hawks will face Randolph this Saturday in the first round of the Morris County Tourament.
