Tough Night for Cougars: Rutgers Prep Runs Away in Girls Hoops, Ridge Edges Boys Fencing
Nicholas Mistretta
MHS ’79 Cougar Sports Correspondent
Montgomery’s varsity programs ran into stiff competition on Tuesday, as the girls basketball team dropped a home decision to state-ranked Rutgers Prep while the boys fencing squad fell on the road to Ridge in a match that turned on the foil and epee strips.
Girls Basketball: Rutgers Prep 59, Montgomery 17
Rutgers Prep (19-2) set the tone early and never let Montgomery (10-11) find an offensive rhythm, pulling away for a 59-17 win.
The Argonauts opened with a 14-8 first-quarter lead, then put the game out of reach with a decisive second period, outscoring Montgomery 22-4 to take a 36-12 advantage into halftime. Rutgers Prep continued to build the margin after the break, winning the third quarter 14-3 and closing with a 9-2 fourth.
Rutgers Prep’s balanced attack was led by Ava LaMonica’s 16 points, with Hailey Benbow adding 11 and Natalia Valdez scoring 10. Nine players reached the scoring column for the visitors.
Montgomery was led by Alia Johnson, who finished with five points and a team-high 10 rebounds while adding three assists. Anya Saini contributed four points and five assists, and Montgomery got three points apiece from Aliza Schulberg and Sophia Lehmann on three-pointers.
Boys Fencing: Ridge 16, Montgomery 11
At Ridge, Montgomery (6-7) came up short in a 16-11 loss to Ridge (11-5), despite controlling saber.
Montgomery won saber 7-2, giving the Cougars a significant edge in one weapon, but Ridge flipped the match by sweeping both foil and epee by identical 7-2 margins. After Ridge took the first two rounds 6-3 and 6-3, Montgomery made a push in the third, winning that segment 5-4, but the Cougars’ late rally wasn’t enough to erase the early deficit.
Ridge’s foil group delivered key points, led by Christopher Zheng (3-0) and Alexander Sloan (3-0), while Jeremy Liu also went unbeaten. In epee, Ridge received perfect records from Alexander Yang (3-0) and Richard Tsien (3-0) to hold off Montgomery’s saber advantage.
Photo Credit: Nicholas Mistretta/headlinenewsmontgomery.com