Madison Girls Basketball Falls to Pequannock

The Madison High School girls basketball team could not contain Samantha Tabakman of Pequannock on Tuesday afternoon, as she led her Panthers to a 57-38 victory over the Dodgers.

Tabakman, a sophomore, scored 33 points in the game.

"She is a great basketball player. We had a hard time stopping her," said senior Evan Foulsham of Madison.

Pequannock is now 13-2 on the season, with one of their two losses coming against Madison earlier this season.

"We held her (Tabakman) to 11 last time, but this time we couldn't do anything," said Madison head coach Stephen Finkelstein. "For us to give up 33 points to any one player is devastating."

The Golden Panthers established themselves early, scoring 11 unanswered points to start the game. It took seven minutes for the Dodgers to get on the board with a 3-pointer from Nikki Caruso, her first of four in the game. The first quarter ended with Pequannock leading 13-3.

The Dodgers' strongest quarter was the second. They matched the Panthers for points, with both teams scoring 12. Caruso sank her second three of the game in the second, and Ali Foulsham hit one as well, but the Dodgers could not stop Tabakman.

By halftime she had scored 14 points, blocked three shots, stolen the ball twice, brought down two rebounds, and had an assist. At halftime, the score was 25-15 Panthers.

Tabakman was even better in the third, proving that she could not only make layup after layup but that she could shoot from the foul line as well. She hit four free throws and scored eight from the field for 12 total in the third quarter. The entire Madison team had only scored 10 in the third, with Caruso making another three pointer and with Corey DeBiasse making one, as well.

Caruso did not give up in the fourth quarter, and she drained her fourth three of the game. Chelsea Davies could also be seen flying around the court, fighting for possession of the ball. Caruso led the Dodgers in scoring with 16 for the game.

Pequannock had learned from the mistakes it made the first time it faced the Dodgers.

"The first time we played we didn't play as strong and aggressive as we could," said Tabakman. "We knew we could beat them, so we came out and played strong all four quarters."

The Madison girls are now two games below .500, their record dropping to 8-10 with the loss to Pequannock. The Dodgers' next game is on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Madison High School against always-tough Morris Catholic (12-2).