BY PAUL SULLIVAN
SPECIAL TO PASCACK PRESS
PARK RIDGE—One-seed Park Ridge High School Owls girls varsity basketball team defeated the two-seed Mountain Lakes High School Lakers, 43-28, on Saturday, March 2 before a packed gym, to win the NJSIAA North Jersey Section 1 Group 1 Championship.
This was Park Ridge’s first sectional championship. Park Ridge fought on to the Group 1 State Tournament on Wednesday, taking it to Franklin Lakes to play the University H.S. Phoenix (Newark) in the Group 1 Tournament Semifinal Round at Ramapo High School.
[For more photos, see the story via this issue of Pascack Press on PDF]
The Owls lost, 57-17. Allie Shenloogian was held to 6 points. Senior forward Juliana Barros led the team with eight rebounds. Park Ridge ended the season, 23-6.
Ah, but that historic sectional showing! Head coach Ryan Dennis told Pascack Press, “It was a great win for our program. These girls played incredibly hard all season to try to get back to this game. I’m so proud of them for all that they achieved. I know it meant a lot to our girls to do this for Park Ridge. We have a tight community here and the community was behind us all season.”
Mountain Lakes scored first, but after junior guard Allie Shenloogian hit a three to make it 3-2, it was all Owls.
They led 17-6 at the end of the 1st quarter, 20-13 at halftime and 36-17 at the end of the third quarter.
Winners of their last seven games to that point, Park Ridge stood at 23-5.
Shenloogian led the team in scoring with 26 points. Senior Forward Abigail McManus had 10 rebounds and 10 steals.
Dennis said, “Abbey McManus is a player that just gives max effort in everything she does. Abbey always finds a way to impact the game with her hustle and heart. She and her teammates on this team are great examples for the future Owls that will one day take the court at Park Ridge High School.”
Beyond the championship team win, Shenloogian had her own big moment. In the fourth quarter, on a lay-up, she set the Park Ridge All-Time girls scoring record with her 1,666th point. The record had been held by Shannon Burns (Class of 2020) who posted 1,664 career points and is a senior on the Ramapo College women’s basketball team, and studying finance and business analytics.
Shenloogian finished the game with 1,670 points.
Dennis said after the game, “Allie Shenloogian, in my opinion, is one of the best players in the county. She makes an impact on both ends of the floor and has continued to work on her game so that she can play at the next level.”
We checked with Burns for her reaction to Shenloogian’s accomplishment—toppling her record.
She said, “I am so happy for Allie. Putting Park Ridge and other small, Group 1 athletics on the map is so important. I realized after finishing my senior college basketball season how grateful I am to have come from such a supportive and close-knit town and school. I can’t wait to see more amazing things come out of Park Ridge basketball!”
IHA fights valiantly
The other Pascack Valley team that made it to its sectional final was IHA. They were the second seed and played top seed, Pope John XXIII, on Monday, March 4 at Paterson’s Kennedy High School in the NJSIAA North Jersey, Non-Public A Final. The IHA Blue Eagles lost, 39-38. Pope John XXIII Lions led after the 1st quarter 10-6. IHA led at halftime, 17-14, and at the end of the third quarter, 29-25.
The Lions came back in the fourth and out-scored the Blue Eagles, 14-9. Pope John took the lead with 1:51 left in the game and were able to keep IHA scoreless the rest of the way. IHA had won every final in this section going back to 2012.
In the loss, Junior, Sofia Valente, led the Blue Eagles with 11 points and four assists. Sophomore Samantha Grella had seven points and eight rebounds.
IHA finished the season 16-10.