PGH NJ 2021-22 Team Preview: Hopewell Valley
Looking back at Hopewell Valley’s 2021 spring season, it’s really interesting to try to dissect what transpired. The Bulldogs started out as well as anyone would want to, storming out to a 3-0 record out of the gate. Things were…
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Continue ReadingLooking back at Hopewell Valley’s 2021 spring season, it’s really interesting to try to dissect what transpired.
The Bulldogs started out as well as anyone would want to, storming out to a 3-0 record out of the gate. Things were looking up for this program, one that has consistently won 15+ games in years previous.
While winning that many games would’ve required them to run the table and go undefeated, Hopewell Valley struggled from that point forward in the season, going on a six-game losing streak.
Four of those losses were five point losses or less, including a tough 38-37 heartbreaker on the road at Steinert on February 20.
Three seniors, including guard Franki Gomez, graduated, and now, Hopewell Valley is looking to regroup and get back to its winning ways this winter.
Prep Girls Hoops New Jersey continues its season preview series with a look at Hopewell Valley, a program that scuffled in the spring, but is looking to leave the bad in the past for the good in the now.
Losing last season’s top guard in Gomez and top forward in Acadia Kurtz presents a tough situation to enter the season with, but there are great options coming through the ranks for this season.
It’s likely that two forwards are going to step up to fill the role of Kurtz in junior Anderson Cappucci and sophomore Kennedy Havens. Cappucci was arguably as good as Kurtz last season in terms of overall production and was more consistent overall.
She nearly averaged 5.0 PPG and RPG as well as 1.0 BPG in the spring and with more emphasis put on her this season, she has the future makings of a double-double machine.
Havens is going to be the backup forward but will also see more time on the floor and possible starting time as well.
She averaged just under a block a game in the spring and had around 3.0 RPG as a freshman, which is a great foundation to build off moving forward.
On the guard side of things, two players first come to mind in sophomore Gillian Magner and senior Hailey Rowe.
Magner actually led the team in blocks as a freshman guard, averaging 1.2 BPG, 6.2 PPG, 2.0 APG and around one made three-pointer a game.
She’ll be asked to shoot much more often from beyond the arc, which will increase those scoring averages, but Magner thrives the best in the lane, so her game will still begin there.
Rowe was a three-point specialist as a junior, knocking down a team-high 22 three-pointers which accounted for 65 percent of her scoring on the season.
Her 8.2 PPG was second on the team and she returns as the leading scorer for Hopewell Valley. Rowe will be leading from the point and that experience as a senior, one of three returning seniors on the team, will be impactful as the season continues.
After those four, the Bulldogs have a number of bench players last season who will be competing for starting time.
Juniors Camille Harris, Katherine Laitusis and Caroline Mormille provide experience and veteran leadership and senior Katie Rowe, of the four, has the edge, averaging 2.3 PPG and 1.7 RPG in seven games last season.
There’s a lot to like about the depth on this team and with some extra reinforcements in the winter, Hopewell Valley is set to get on a winning track in the CVC.