Belleville head girls basketball Chris Cantarella knows that going two-plus weeks without games like the Buccaneers did over the Christmas break isn’t ideal.
While not ideal, Cantarella’s Bucs returned from the break with a 1-1 mark. After taking a32-24 defeat last Thursday to Newark Collegiate, Belleville responded with a 35-32 victory over Butler on Saturday,
“We had some really good practices (during the break), but practices aren’t games,” said Cantarella. “We did okay on Thursday, not as well as I would’ve liked. We played a really good half on Saturday against Butler. Hopefully, we get back (to where we can be) now that we’re back in the swing of things.”
Belleville’s quest to repeat as Super Essex Conference – Freedom Division champions will be won on the defensive end of the floor. But if there’s one player who is starting to establish herself as a potential go-to scorer is Camila Cortes-Alonso.
Cortes-Alonso, a senior guard and returning starter, scored a career-high 16 points against Butler. And while there may be some pressure for her to lead the way offensively after the graduation leading scorer Katherinne Avecillas-Macgregor, Cantarella doesn’t want Cortes-Alonso to worry about forcing bad shots up.
“I tell (Camilla) she has to shoot more, but she knows that her sister (Isabella Cortes-Alonso) can score, she knows that Elise () can score, she knows that McKayla () can score,” Cantarella said. “So it’s one of those things where she doesn’t have to put the load on her shoulders because she has trust in her other teammates.”
Isabella Cortes-Alonso, a sophomore, and senior Kayla Solano-Torres share the backcourt in Belleville’s three-guard starting lineup. All three are capable of running the point on offense, while Solano-Torres, despite standing at just 5-foot-2, is the top rebounder of the contingent.
Coming off the bench is freshman Elise Vasquez, who at 5-foot-6, can defend forwards if opponents try to play a bigger lineup. Vasquez and Camila Cortes-Alonso are tied for the team lead in 3-pointers with five. Alexa Palma gives Belleville an additional spot up shooter, while senior Sheyla Solano-Torres is an athletic on-ball defender .
What Belleville lacks in terms of height at the guard position, it makes up for at the forward spot.
Five-foot-nine senior McKayla Reed is a returning starter at one spot, while 6-foot-0 junior Mya Estrict is at the other forward spot and a potential difference make on the defensive end.
Junior Naiomi Garcia is a defensive specialist off the bench, while freshman Natalie Batista is a forward off the bench with a bright future.
Seniors Niyah-myah Anabwani, Maridel Casino, Bianca Mora and Arian Suero bring additional depth to the Bucs’ roster.
Belleville goes on the road for a pair of division matchups this week as it plays at Irvington on Tuesday before traveling to Newark to face Barring on Thursday. Home dates with Newark Global Studies on Jan. 20 and Arts the next day follow.
While the schedule is set to step up both in competition and quantity of games, Cantarella is confident his group will continue to get better as the competition does.
“If we’re not getting better, we’re getting worse,” said Cantarella. “We’ve explained to them that if your best basketball is on January 9, then we’re in trouble. They fully understand that it takes work to get back into form. Hopefully they realize that the first half we played against Butler could be the way that we should be playing all the time.”
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Jason Bernstein | Observer Sports Writer
Jason Bernstein joined The Observer as its sports writer in March 2022, following the retirement of Jim Hague. He has a wealth of sports-writing experience, including for NJ Advance Media (nj.com, The Jersey Journal, The Star-Ledger.)