Girls basketball crushes Elizabeth by 16

Two players tallied double-doubles for Westfield High School as the girls basketball team defeated Elizabeth 49-33 on Thursday afternoon at the Thomas G. Dunn Sports Center at Elizabeth High.

Senior Amanda Markowski led the Blue Devils with 19 points to go along with 10 steals, while senior captain Diana Venezia scored 12 points and pulled down 13 rebounds. Elizabeth could not compete with Westfield's combination of Markowski and Venezia, trailing by as many as 20 at times.

"I've been waiting for (Markowski) to come out of her shell," WHS head coach Joe Marino said. "In order for us to do any damage, we're going to need some points from her as well as the other girls on the team besides Diana (Venezia)."'

Junior Katie Ponce also had a strong outing, getting seven points, eight rebounds and seven assists.

The Blue Devils opened the game on a 7-0 run before Elizabeth called a timeout and subsequently hit its first basket. Even though Westfield opened up a 14-7 lead at the end of the first, Marino's team could have had a bigger advantage had it not struggled from the free throw line.

WHS was a woeful 2-for-6 from the charity stripe in the first quarter and 4-for-14, or 29 percent for the game.

"We work on free throws every day, and the kids aren't allowed to leave the gym until they shoot 80 percent," Marino said. "I am noticing some of the girls don't have the proper rotation on the ball, and that could have a lot to do with it. We just have to keep working."

Westfield maintained a healthy six point lead going into halftime, but during the second quarter Emana Dent came alive for Elizabeth. Dent scored 15 points in the first half, and went on for a game high 22.

Marino wanted his team to focus on denying her the ball, because once she got it she found lanes to the basket for high percentage shots.

"We just wanted to keep it out of her hands," he said. "If we kept it out of her hands we knew we'd have control."

The Blue Devils began the second half with a 6-0 run, thanks to three consecutive open layups created off of Elizabeth turnovers in the backcourt.

Venezia came alive for Westfield in the second half, after scoring just three points in the first. In the third quarter she converted a three point play, and hit a hop-step layup along the baseline.

"She's a hard worker, and I knew that sooner or later she was going to be good for some points," Marino said.

Westfield took a 39-20 lead into the fourth, and Elizabeth could not recover. With the game in hand, Marino made several substitutions in the final two minutes.

"At this point I'm still trying to put together the right formula," he said. "Some of those kids who came off the bench are replacements at times, and some of them were starting at one point. It's just a matter of trying to get the right ingredients together to make it work."

The Blue Devils are now 3-6, and Marino is optimistic about the final month of the season.

"It was a good victory and we're looking forward to next week," he said. "We have some big games against Governor Livingston, Union, and Summit. We want to try and prove a point in the county that we're still around."

Westfield's next game is on January 19 at home against Governor Livingston.