IN PLAY: Princeton High girls’ basketball player Brynne Hennessy looks to pass the ball in a game this winter. Playing in her first varsity campaign, junior guard and co-captain Hennessy emerged as a key offensive threat from the perimeter as PHS went 5-20. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

With a roster including no seniors and few of the returning players having any varsity experience, Dave Kosa knew that his Princeton High girls’ basketball team would take its lumps this winter.

While PHS ended up posting a 5-20 record, Tiger head coach Kosa saw positives as his young squad picked up valuable experience.

“I was definitely encouraged by the progress that we made throughout the course of the season, even though it didn’t show up in the win/loss column,” said Kosa. “Some girls really got better.”

In the last week of the campaign, PHS displayed that improvement, playing three tight games and picking up its fifth win in the process.

“The reason why we played these three games was to get more experience,” said Kosa, whose team fell 37-26 to Northern Burlington on February 25, defeated Willingboro 31-27 two days later, and ended with season by losing 39-33 to Bordentown on February 28.

“We are young. We didn’t make the state tournament so why not play until the last day that we could to get better and just get more game experience. From that standpoint, it was definitely a plus.”

In assessing the team’s effort down the stretch, Kosa saw the final two outings as a major plus.

“Willingboro was a tight one throughout so that was a good one,” said Kosa.

“It was nice to win a close game down the stretch. Against Bordentown, we made a valiant comeback in the last quarter. I think they were up 18 or so early in the third and we came back and cut it to four.”

Over the course of the season, playing tight defense helped keep PHS close in a number of games.

“We knew that we weren’t going to be deep and we knew that we were going to be young,” said Kosa.

“We figured the best way to keep us in games would be to slow the ball down and play our solid defense. I think we averaged giving up under 40 points a game which was our goal.”

On the flip side, PHS struggled to get points. “The area that we need to improve upon big time is scoring the ball,” said Kosa.

“Our shooting percentages were way low. We were under 30 percent from two, under 20 percent from three, and under 50 percent from the free throw line. We worked really hard in improving our shooting percentage. There is no substitute for shooting in games. We would be in some games and then all of a sudden we would get cold in one quarter and that would do us in. It is a great learning experience and I am excited for next year as far as the growth.”

Junior guard and co-captain Brynne Hennessy provided some of the best shooting for the Tigers, scoring 6.7 points a game and tallying a team-high 22 3-pointers.

“It would have been nice to have Brynne for a whole year,” said Kosa, noting that Hennessy was sidelined due to injury and illness.

“She worked really hard and she was one of our best three-point shooters. In the last game, she had 20 points with six threes. She really improved from last year to this year. She was strictly a JV player and this year she became one of our go-tos as far as perimeter shooting.”

The team’s other junior co-captain, point guard Ashley Tumpowsky, helped keep the offense going.

“Ashley is smart, she has a great mind for the game,” said Kosa of Tumpowsky who averaged 5.1 points a game and tied for the team lead in assists (38) with sophomore Molly Brown.

“She was able to run our stuff. It was hard for her because she was our only point guard. We didn’t really have anybody behind her so she would have to play almost the entire game and she would get tired. She is a warrior and she was out there doing her best. She can only get better as well.”

The team’s trio of sophomores, which featured Nora Devine and Sofia Aguayo in addition to Brown, each got better as the season went on.

“They are all very hard workers, they all offer something different,” said Kosa, who also got some good play from sophomore Moji Ayodele and freshman Rachel Luo.

“Nora was third in the conference in blocked shots (47), I think. She got six or seven rebounds a game for us (a team-high 144 on the season). She is scratching the surface as far as her potential with what she can do inside. Sofia needs to work on her strength and conditioning but she has really soft hands and moves well. Molly is the consummate role player. She will dive on the floor for loose balls, she will set hard screens, and she will get some rebounds. This year, she was our glue girl so that really helped us with her stepping into that role.”

In order to get more out of its potential next winter, the Tigers will need to work hard over the offseason.

“They were thrown into the fire this year,” said Kosa. “Next year we know what we have and we are going to be getting some more pieces. We are going to be playing in the summer league. We will have workouts two times a week and be playing in a team camp. Doing all of that should help us.”

Looking ahead, Kosa is fired up over the prospects for the program.

“We will be back to the grind; the success that we had two years ago was due to the fact that all of those girls were committed,” said Kosa, whose 2018-19 team posted an 18-8 record.

“They played during the summer, they played during the fall. That was the message I got across to them, now is their time to be committed. To catch up to the other teams, we have to work that much harder. It is a natural progression of the girls maturing and getting physically stronger and quicker. One of our MOs this summer is to work on that. We would have the Xs and Os in some games but it is just that some teams were better athletically. Another year of experience and more strength and more speed and all of sudden, we are closing that gap.”