(Photo by Frank Wojciechowski) caption: HARD DRIVE: Princeton Day School girls’ basketball star Janie Smukler drives hard to the hoop in recent action. Last Wednesday, junior guard Smukler scored a game-high 19 points but it wasn’t enough as second-seeded PDS fell 59-36 to No. 1 Rutgers Prep in the state Prep B championship game. The loss left the Panthers with a 16-9 final record.

Smukler, PDS Girls’ Hoops Go Down Fighting In Losing to Rutgers Prep in Prep B Title Game

Bill Alden

Janie Smukler and the second-seeded Princeton Day School girls’ basketball had their hands full as they played at No. 1 Rutgers Prep last Wednesday in the state Prep B championship contest.

“We knew we had a tough game coming in,” said PDS junior guard and co-captain Smukler. “We had played them twice this year and lost by 20.”

When PDS proceeded to fall behind the Argonauts 10-0 six minutes into the first quarter of the title game, it would have been understandable if it had thrown in the towel.

The fiery Smukler, though, wasn’t about to stop fighting. She scored four points in the waning moments of the first quarter to help the Panthers narrow the gap to 12-6.

In the second quarter, she chipped in six points as PDS pulled to within 18-16 and went into halftime trailing 23-16.

Smukler and the Panthers were cautiously optimistic as they gathered during intermission.

“We got it into Tiff [Tiffany Patterson] and we played well,” said Smukler, reflecting on the team’s second quarter rally.

“We were down but we were happy that it wasn’t that much. The game plan was to keep doing what we were doing.”

In the second half, though, the Panthers couldn’t do what they wanted as Rutgers Prep outscored them 16-6 in the third quarter and never looked back on the way to a 59-36 win.

Despite being down by around 20 points for most of the final period, PDS kept battling as Smukler scored six points over the last eight minutes with Patterson adding five.

“We didn’t give up,” said Smukler, who ended the evening with a game-high 19 points. “We kept playing.”

PDS head coach Mika Ryan was proud of the way her players hung in there as they absorbed the Rutgers Prep onslaught.

“It looked bleak there for a while,” acknowledged Ryan, who guided the Panthers to a 16-9 record in her first year at the helm of the program.

“We never stopped fighting; we never stopped trying and that’s all you can ask for. I don’t know how we could match the firepower that that team had.”

In Ryan’s view, the team’s effort was the product of a unity that has developed over the course of the winter.

“I have seen great strides by this program as a team,” said Ryan, whose coaching resumé includes stops at Virginia, Rider, and The College of New Jersey.

“I was very critical of them early in the season for being a collection of individuals. I would say now that we are a team, not a collection of individuals. I think in the last three weeks we have played some of our best basketball.”

The Panther’s late run is even more impressive considering that star forward Sarah Godwin has been sidelined for nearly a month with an ACL injury.

“People don’t realize that we lost our best athlete three weeks ago,” said Ryan, referring to junior star Godwin. “What this team has achieved without her is pretty remarkable.”

For Ryan, it was pretty remarkable that her club was playing in late February.

“This is the last day that we could possibly play and we are playing,” said Ryan, whose club also advanced to the Mercer County Tournament semifinals. “That’s more than we can say about a lot of teams so I am happy about that.”

It was the last game for senior star Patterson, whose leadership and inside presence will be sorely missed.

“That is a huge loss; the effect of losing Tiff and her graduation won’t really hit any of us until we step on the court next November,” said Ryan of Patterson, who ended up with 12 points in the loss to Rutgers Prep and will be playing for Long Island University next season.

“She has given so much to this program and she has improved so much. My only regret is that I only got to coach her for a year. Just being the young lady that she is, made it really a pleasure to be on the court with her.”

Ryan had no regrets as she reflected on her return to the sidelines after an absence of 16 years.

“We had the normal headaches of coaching but I thoroughly enjoyed it; I really did,” said Ryan. “I am looking forward to all of the kids who are coming back.”

Smukler, for her part, is looking forward to her senior year and seeing PDS build on the success it experienced this winter.

“I am so proud of our team,” said Smukler. “With Sarah getting injured, it was tough but we really stuck through it. We worked really hard. It’s going to be a fun season next year. We are going to have four seniors [Godwin, Molly Rubin, and Rachel Maddox]; we are going to basically have everyone back.”

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