BY MIKE WHITE
Staff Writer

BRICK TOWNSHIP — With all the poise of a seasoned veteran, Lakewood High School’s Stephanie Campbell stepped to the free-throw line and knocked down a pair of foul shots to lift the Lady Piners to their first victory of the year.

Campbell’s last second heroics lifted Lakewood to a 37-36 triumph over Marymount High School, (N.Y.), in a consolation game of the Brick Memorial Tournament last week.

After getting fouled by driving to the basket, Campbell calmly drained a pair of free throws with five seconds remaining to seal the win.

“She is a pretty solid free-throw shooter,” Lakewood coach Lenny Anen said. “I had a lot of confidence in her at that point of the game. She knew how important making those shots was. She stepped right up and knocked them down. She is the one we want at the free-throw line at that point in the game.”

Campbell’s stellar play during the three games resulted in the senior being selected to the all tournament team.

“She played extremely well for us during the three games,” Anen said. “She is one of the girls who have been around the program for a while. She has worked hard on improving her game. It was nice to see her play is getting recognized.”

Campbell wasn’t only a factor at the offensive end. Her defensive prowess resulted in keeping Lakewood in the game against Wall High School, which ended up winning the event by defeating Central in the championship game.

“She is a fine defensive player,” Anen said. “She did a good job of stopping their second-leading scorer. We need her to play well at both ends of the floor in order for us to have a shot at winning.”

Of course, against Marymount High School, Lakewood’s defense stopped a final shot by to celebrate its only win of the three-game event.

Campbell finished with a team high 10 points as the Lady Piners rallied to outscore Marymount by a 15-6 margin in the final eight minutes of the game.

Lakewood trailed 27-23 after three periods. But the Lady Piners stepped up their defensive pressure and made key baskets to supercharge a fourth-quarter comeback.

“This team never quit in this game,” Anen said. “We showed a lot of mettle by coming back the way we did. For us this is a great win. It should help our kids develop some confidence.”

Junior Krista Hutcherson added nine points, while freshman Brittany Small had eight. Kendra Davis finished with six points.

“We got scoring from a number of different players in this game,” Anen said. “We weren’t relying on one player to carry us. That’s not the kind of team we are. We need to get a lot of people involved.”

Junior forward Natasha Rodriguez scored nine points as Lakewood fell to Wall, 40-30. Campbell added eight points, Small six and Davis five as LHS overcame a 12-0 first-quarter lead by Wall to make the game close.

The Lady Piners, however, outscored the Lady Knights by a 13-3 margin in the second quarter.

“I thought we did a good job in that game to come back,” Anen said. “They outplayed us in the opening eight minutes, but our girls hung in there and fought back in the second quarter. I thought we showed a lot of toughness and in this tournament.”