Girls basketball kicked off their senior night vs the Immaculata Spartans. Two of Hillsborough’s starting seniors, Allison Watson and Elissa Nysenkyire, had to watch from the sidelines due to injury, but this allowed for other girls on the team to get a lot more minutes, and they did not disappoint.  Hillsborough came out and played stellar defense. They held Immaculta to 0 points in the first quarter. The Raiders also played great on the offensive side. They totaled 31 pts at halftime to Immaculata’s 7. The girls continued their dominance for the remainder of the contest posting a decisive 65-31 victory.

“It was a good team win and was fun to have everyone contribute,” senior Grace O’Connor said. “We played together and picked up a needed win.”

The girls won two out of their next three, taking on Phillipsburg, Summit, and Piscataway.  Starting off with a tough away game at Phillipsburg, sophomore Olivia Gaspar did the best she could trying to take down Stateliners, putting up 14 points, but her efforts weren’t enough as the team took a heart wrenching double digit loss.  However, this was only a small bump in the road for the determined team.

Hillsborough bounced back at home taking down Summit by 14 points.  Continuing their lock-down culture, the girls only allowed double digit points once in the 3rd quarter, otherwise keeping Summit shy of 10 points in every quarter.  The team was led by sophomore duo Morgan Hodorowski and Gaspar, who topped the score sheet putting up both 12 and 10, respectively, while showing off their potential impact for years to come.

Playing their last game before Somerset County Tournament play, the girls played Piscataway at home. A tight game throughout, the Chiefs kept it close, but a big 2nd and 3rd quarter by Hillsborough pushed them to a win.  Senior Dani Pescatore led the charge for the Raiders, scoring 17 points, via getting to the line a plethora of times.  

Hillsborough picked a perfect time to catch fire, as they have both the Somerset County Tournament and the NJSIAA sectional tournament coming up on Feb. 22 and Mar. 3, respectively.  The girls will have to remain a tight group and stay hot if they want to make a run in these tournaments.