Dodgers fall Despite Fourth-Quarter Comeback

A fourth-quarter offensive surge led by Nikki Caruso brought the Madison High School girls basketball team within six points of visiting Chatham, but the 20-point lead the Cougars established in the first half proved to be too much for the Dodgers to overcome.

Despite 15 points by Caruso in the final eight minutes, the Dodgers fell 47-39 to the Cougars on Monday night.

Madison came out looking composed and poised to get a win against its cross-town rival. In their last meeting, Chatham won big at home, and the Dodgers seemed eager to settle the score.

Team leader Chelsea Davies hit Evan Foulsham for the Dodgers' first points to tie it at two.  Foulsham followed with a bank shot, and Caruso added two more to round out the home team's scoring in the first.

Throughout the first half, Madison's organized and methodical offensive play lacked the energy of the Cougars' fast-paced, quick-passing offense.  The Chatham offense seemed to spread Madison thin at times, but the Dodgers were not yet ready to give up.

Corey Debiasse entered the game and went 1-for-2 from the line, and the always dependable Mackenzie Ellis put up the remaining points for the Dodgers in the second quarter.  They entered the locker room at halftime trailing 30-12.

Madison looked to trim its first half deficit from the opening whistle, and the Dodgers reentered the game with renewed urgency. Caruso put up five and Debiasse converted on a deep jumper, drawing a foul. She completed the shot for a 3-point play, but the Dodgers went into the final eight minutes down seventeen, at 37-20.

In the fourth quarter, no one was ready for the change in the game's pace, especially Chatham: fans scratched their heads, referees got hounded, and the players watched helplessly as Caruso went on a tear.

"We had nothing to lose," she said after the game. "They're a great team. We just wanted to show them that we can stick with them. Once we got a few stops and a few layups we just played hard."

Caruso completed layup after layup, recorded steal after steal, and capped it off with a trademark 3-poiner that brought the Dodgers within six, at 43-37.  Several Cougar timeouts couldn't slow the run, and with the help of Ellis and Sam Cicconi, Madison was within striking distance with 11.0 left on the game clock. The Dodgers gave fouls, and Caruso converted a final layup, but it wasn't enough to pull off what would have been an incredible victory.

"We got a couple of good shots, and we started playing off of our energy," Ellis said.  "We wanted to beat them. We had a bunch of people out so we knew we had to step up.  We did a good job coming back, but we can't get down early."

Madison head coach Stephen Finkelstein was complimentary of Chatham's performance on the evening, as well as its season.

"They're in the county championships for a reason," he said.  "They're a great defensive team. They're smart, they're unselfish, and they finish."

Though the girls "played extremely hard," Finkelstein cited an inability to cope with the Cougar press and a lack of team offense as issues that need to be addressed.

"We couldn't inbound off the pressure," he said.  "We didn't get enough people scoring."

On Tuesday the Dodgers will take on St. Elizabeth at home, and they hope to ride Monday's fourth quarter momentum into that contest.

"We stuck with it," Finkelstein said. "Nikki had fifteen points in the fourth. We're hoping to build on it, play strong, and play tough."