CRESSKILL — Colleen McQuillen could not hit a shot for the first three quarters. In the fourth, she could not miss.
The junior standout led No. 2 seed Cresskill to its third straight North 1, Group 1 girls basketball title, 39-33, over No. 8 Midland Park on Tuesday.
McQuillen made the tying jumper with 2:55 left and both ends of a 1-and-1 to give Cresskill (22-6) the lead for good with 48.2 seconds left.
Midland Park (20-9) did not score in the final nine minutes after taking a 33-21 lead late in the third. When senior Elley Wells sank a pair of free throws with 23.6 to go, the Cougars’ game-ending, 18-0 run was complete.
Cresskill will face North 2 champion New Providence in Thursday’s 7 p.m. Group 1 semifinal at Ramapo High School.
“The past two years, we played University [in the semis], and that was a hard game,” Wells said. “We’re just so happy we won the state-sectional championship. That’s what we really care about, and we’re just going to try our best from here on out.”
What it means
While the seniors Wells, Annie Mioli and Lauren Coffey ended their careers with a trio of sectional titles, McQuillen has a chance to make it 4-for-4 next season.
The 2,000-point scorer did not make a field goal in the first half and misfired on her first five three-pointers. When she made one off an inbounds play to start the fourth, the momentum was firmly in Cresskill’s corner.
“She’s been there before, but she hasn’t experienced a half like she did,” Cougars coach Mike McCourt said. “And to her credit, she came back in the second half and played through and really persevered.”
Midland Park, the Bergen Invitational champion, was the only NJIC Patriot Division team to defeat Cresskill this season, doing so at home on Jan. 7. The Cougars took the rematch in overtime, 34-32, in their gym on Feb. 4
“This happened the last time we played them, we got down early and then had to come back,” McQuillen said. “Both [previous] games we played against them, they started out hot, and we just had to keep digging.”
Key sequence
Trailing by 12, Cresskill scored seven points in the final 40 seconds of the third quarter.
Coffey dished to Mioli for a three, and the next two Panther possessions ended with steals by McQuillen and Coffey, who turned them into transition layups that cut the margin to five.
By the numbers
11: Number of threes the Cougars attempted in the first quarter. They made just three before settling in to connect on four of the next eight.
10-0: Midland Park run to end the first half, during which senior forward Gillian Luberoff scored every point, with assists from three different players: Julia Calderone, Alyssa Genao and Tess Olson.
9:47: Length of time Cresskill prevented a field goal to end the game.
Game balls
► McQuillen ended with 15 points, 13 rebounds, four steals and three blocks.
► Luberoff closed her Midland Park career with a monster double-double: 20 points and 16 rebounds. Olson added seven points and nine boards.
They said it
“It’s hard to have your best game every game… but she [McQuillen] got right back into it. And we just had to lift each other up and have high spirits, and we all just got on the same page.” — Wells on the late-game surge
“We ended up down 10 at halftime the last time we played them here, and we came back. Our kids have got a lot of fight in them.” — McCourt
