BERGEN COUNTY CHAMPIONS
BY MARK J. CZERWINSKI
STAFF WRITER | THE RECORD
MAHWAH — The Saddle River Day players stood on the Bradley Center court Sunday afternoon, all huddled in a circle, jumping up and down and screaming with delight.
Freshman guard Michelle Sidor, the most talked about player in North Jersey, broke away from the group and found fellow freshman guard Jackie Wolak. Both players smiled, made a little leap and bumped hips in a celebration marking the first Bergen County girls basketball title in program history.
“I can’t describe the feeling right now,” senior guard Dani McMahon said after the third-seeded Rebels defeated No. 1 Immaculate Conception, 53-36, in the county title game at Ramapo College. “This was us putting the school on the map.”
And while folks will spend a lot of time talking about Sidor’s impressive 34-point performance, this victory actually was a tribute to the Rebels’ defense. The Rebels kept the pressure on an undermanned Blue Wolves squad by forcing turnovers and dictating the flow of the entire game.
“They were cranking,” said Saddle River Day coach Danny Brown. “They had an energy today.”
The Rebels (22-1), ranked No. 1 in The Record girls basketball Top 25, opened the game with a 9-0 spurt to conjure up images of their 18-1 start against NV/Old Tappan in the semifinals. Sidor, the state’s leading scorer, showed right away that she was on her game by scoring seven of those points.
“We knew we had to jump out early,” said senior forward Kayla Oge. “We’re very aggressive on defense, and that can change the tone of the game.”
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