money Holmdel girls basketball hitting stride after choppy start
WEST LONG BRANCH – Like many teams across New Jersey, Holmdel hasn’t had a smooth start to the season.
After Opening Night – a loss to Pennsylvania powerhouse Archbishop Carroll – Holmdel shut down its program for precautionary reasons after several JV players contracted COVID-19. The Hornets wouldn’t play another game for nine days.
They notched two wins coming out of their pause but then dropped a lopsided game to state-ranked New Providence right before the New Year.
As Holmdel head coach Darren Ault puts it, it’s been a choppy start. But the Hornets could finally be hitting their stride.
With a convincing 72-49 victory against fellow A Central foe Shore on Saturday morning, the Hornets have won their last three games, remain tied for the division lead and could snatch first place with a victory against Red Bank Catholic in the coming week.
“We’re finding the chemistry that we haven’t had,” Ault said. “They’re making the right steps. They’re getting better.”
A rising star
Holmdel (5-2) got early contributions from junior Alexandra Loucopoulos, who scored 16 of her career-high 21 points in the first half. Loucopoulos is a rising star in the Shore Conference and is helping ease the Hornets through some of their key graduation losses that included leading scorers Ryann Taylor, Olivia Palmer and Lindsay Cannon.
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“I definitely need to step up this year because we lost a few really good players,” Loucopoulos said. “I feel like I’m filling the role well. I can’t do it without my other teammates.”
Her rising stock hasn’t gone unnoticed. Ault recently elevated her to a captain role alongside seniors Abbey Ferguson and Katherine Maritini for her great play and leadership on the court.
Ault has seen vast improvements in Loucopoulos. When she played her first varsity minutes last year, Ault felt she was forcing things to prove herself. Now, she’s settling in the flow of the game.
“She’s not pressing, it’s coming naturally,” Ault said. “I think last year, she was new in the program, and she tried proving herself. She would shoot things that weren’t necessarily there. She’s matured a lot.”
Loucopoulos has gotten plenty of help from a typically balanced Holmdel squad. Ferguson and Erica Stolker finished with 12 points and Martini poured in 10 points.
Holmdel also had the undesirable task of slowing down Shore’s junior star Rylee Drahos. Entering the game, Drahos was averaging 22.5 points and had scored less than 20 points only once in six games. Using a stingy zone, Holmdel was able to slow Drahos down as much as possible, limiting her to 17 points.
While freshman Reese Fiore made Holmdel pay for its extra attention given to Drahos – scoring 17 points with some sharpshooting from distance – it wasn’t enough to surmount the Hornets’ humming offense.
“Rylee is obviously the player, she’s a marquee player in the Shore,” Ault said. “A point of emphasis for us was not letting her get downhill and create some of those easy fouls and buckets, and you have to be ready to close out. We did that for the most part.”
Holmdel is a team that stunned Red Bank Catholic during the regular season just two years ago. With the Shore Conference fairly wide open outside St. John Vianney at the top, the Hornets are looking to make some noise this year.
They could start with another massive upset against the Caseys.
“Every game, we’re fighting to prove ourselves,” Loucopoulos said. “We want to prove how good we are.”
Danny LoGiudice has covered local sports across New Jersey since 2014. Contact him at dlogiudice@gannettnj.com or @danny_logiudice on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Shore Conference girls basketball: Holmdel defeats Shore
