“Comeback Cats” could be a fitting name for the Bridgewater-Raritan High School girls’ basketball team.
Especially after the Panthers successfully rallied from a 15-point deficit late in the second quarter at home against Newark's Donald M. Payne Sr. School of Technology (Payne Tech).
Despite Payne Tech (8-6) allowing just 12 percent shooting from the floor in the first half and senior Kayla Butler (17 points) collecting 20 of the visiting team's 47 rebounds, Bridgewater-Raritan(5-8) bounced back to force a tie game in the closing seconds after allowing just 19 points over the game’s final 18 minutes.
With 1.7 seconds remaining, senior forward Emily Leppert (five points) banked in a miraculous, go-ahead bucket in the post while surrounded by three Payne Tech defenders to seal a thrilling 42-40 comeback victory for the Panthers on Tuesday, January 21, at Vaughn Stapleton Gymnasium in Bridgewater.
“Winning like this by two points kind of fuels us a little bit more because we were fighting back the whole game,” said after the win by Bridgewater-Raritan senior guard Angela Tremarco, who connected on all of her team-high 14 points in the second half. “We built the momentum up, and hopefully it just leads into the next games to come.”
Senior guard Madison Raub contributed to the victory with 10 points and five steals.
Not factoring in the upcoming Somerset County Tournament, Bridgewater- Raritan (5-8, 2-4) will now play six straight games away from home, starting with a rematch at North Hunterdon (7-7, 1-5) next at 7 p.m. Thursday, January 23, in Annandale.