SHARK ATTACK: Princeton High girls’ basketball player Katie Sharkey dribbles upcourt in a game last winter. Last Thursday, Sharkey tallied a game-high 18 points in a losing cause as PHS fell 50-39 to Somerville in the semifinals of the WW/P-North Holiday Tournament. The Tigers, who defeated WW/P-South 41-20 last Saturday in the third place game at the tourney to move to 3-3, host Trenton Central on January 5 and Hamilton West on January 9. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

With the Princeton High girls’ basketball team trailing Somerville 43-27 last Thursday in the semifinals of the WW/P-North Holiday Tournament, Katie Sharkey caught fire from the perimeter.

PHS sophomore forward Sharkey drained three 3-pointers in a three-minute span in the fourth quarter as the Tigers tried to put together a rally.

“I think I am always feeling it,” said Sharkey, who ended up with a game-high 18 points but it wasn’t enough as Somerville prevailed 50-39. “It is mostly confidence, especially with shooting.”

In the early going, PHS played with confidence against the Pioneers as it trailed 10-9 after the first quarter and 25-21 at halftime.

“In the first half, I think our minds were more in it than in the second,” said Sharkey. “We played better together as a team which really showed on the court, not just through points but on defense too.”

Sharkey started getting into a rhythm as she scored four points in the first half.

“That is how it always goes for me,” said Sharkey. “I have to miss a few before I start hitting them but once I do, I am on.”

When the shots started dropping in the fourth quarter, Sharkey and her teammates felt they could put a scare into the Pioneers.

“Once we started hitting a few, we started to come back,” said Sharkey, who tallied five points as PHS defeated WW/P-South 41-20 on Saturday in the third place game at the tourney to move to 3-3. “We saw the opportunity,” said Sharkey. “I think that is what pushed us in the end even though the result wasn’t what we wanted.”

Over the offseason, Sharkey worked hard to make the most of her opportunities this winter.

“I still have a long way to go, but I definitely take more shots than I did last year which shows,” said Sharkey. “We had a fall league and a spring league and I practiced all summer.”

PHS head coach Dave Kosa liked the way his squad started against Somerville.

“I thought we came out hard in the first half,” said Kosa. “We got stymied by foul trouble. We had three starters with three fouls in Anna [Winters], Sephora [Romain], and then Luna [Bar-Cohen].”

In the second half, the Tigers misfired and had two key players sidelined by some knocks as the Pioneers reeled off 14 unanswered points starting late in the third quarter.

“We had wide-open shots, we had the same shots as them,” said Kosa. “Luna getting hit and coming out and then Anna got hit and went out, it takes two starters off the floor. It throws off your chemistry so I think that is what hurt us. When they are making their run, we didn’t have our five starters in.”

With PHS having posted two straight wins coming into Thursday, Kosa believed his squad didn’t display that same intensity against Somerville.

“We weren’t laser-focused like it had been in the last game,” said Kosa. “That was the disappointing part of it. We had a chance to make a run and then we would always do something to give it right back to them.”

Kosa was hoping that the lessons learned from the contest with the Pioneers would help his squad regain that focus as it faced WW/P-South.

“It is going to test us as far as being able to play with the really good teams that have the good records, this is obviously one of them,” said Kosa, who got 17 points from sophomore star Winters in the win over South. “It means coming out really, really strong again like we did last week and trying to get to 3-3 before the New Year.”

Sharkey’s strong play is the result of a lot of practice. “We work a lot on shooting, that is something we need to improve upon,” said Kosa. “Katie has worked really, really hard to get to this point. She is capable of making those shots and she is capable of making more of that.”

Senior point guard Riley Devlin has shown that she is more than capable of triggering the PHS offense.

“Riley is really stepping up, she did great the last two years as far as her leadership for us,” said Kosa. “She is really running the show for us.”

With PHS hosting Trenton Central on January 5 and Hamilton West on January 9, Kosa is looking for his players to step up. 

“We have our opportunities, we are right there,” said Kosa. “We have to play better together collectively as a team. It is just those little things, mistakes that we made. It is just a matter of playing an entire game and not making those mistakes where we are fouling or missing open shots.”

Sharkey, for her part, believes that the Tigers can do some good things going forward.

“I think we have to learn from it, that we have to keep our minds in it the entire game,” said Sharkey. “We came out really aggressive today but we just have to keep that consistent the whole time and not let go of that.”