Girls basketball: Former football player leads Middlesex to another GMCT upset

SPOTSWOOD – On the eve of the Super Bowl, a former football player dribbled downhill with determination to help Cinderella punch a ticket to the GMC Girls Basketball Tournament semifinals on Saturday.

Following the lead of junior point guard Jessica Devine, the 14th-seeded Middlesex High School team posted its second significant upset of the GMCT. Devine, who was tough to contain when she drove to the basket and reached the lane, poured in a game-high 33 points, including 13 in the fourth quarter, and added eight rebounds and seven assists to lift the Blue Jays past sixth-seeded South Brunswick, 66-59 at Spotswood High School.

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Middlesex’s Jaclyn Deshields scored 11 points and Armani Nguet added eight points and three rebounds to aid the Blue Jays attack.

Devine and her 14th-seeded teammates will try to score another upset when Middlesex (15-11) faces second-seeded Colonia in a semifinal at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Monroe High School. Taylor Derkack (16 points and 20 rebounds) and Colonia cruised past seventh-seeded East Brunswick, 43-23, in the first game of yesterday’s quadruple-header.

Top-seeded St. Thomas Aquinas, which dispatched eighth-seeded Spotswood in yesterday’s nightcap, will play Red Division foe Monroe in the second semifinal on Tuesday (7 p.m.). Fifth-seeded Monroe scored a 38-29 victory against fourth-seeded North Plainfield, which defeated the Falcons in December.

Middlesex, which has gone 7-2 in its last nine games, upset third-seeded White Division champ J.P. Stevens, 48-39, to reach Saturday’s quarterfinal. Devine is averaging 31 points per GMCT game for the Blue Jays, who opened the tournament with a 73-38 victory against Highland Park.

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Middlesex trailed South Brunswick (12-11) 49-41 with 7:34 left in the game, but the Blue Jays scored 12 straight points – a 3-pointer from Deshields capped the run with 4:45 to play – to seize a 53-49 lead.

The Vikings answered with five straight points, thanks to a right-handed layup from lefty Avery Jenne and a step-back trifecta by Meher Vig to grab a 54-53 edge with 3:52 left

But Middlesex senior Healey McKenna converted a Devine pass into a layup, and Devine sank a 3-pointer to give the Blue Jays a 58-54 advantage it never relinquished with 2:25 remaining.

“We go as Jess goes,” said first-year Middlesex coach Stewart Lester. “We’re not just a one-man show, she brings the fuel to the fire, she’s our soul and down the stretch; she’s like a second coach on the floor.

“We face a lot of zone defenses, but Jess is really tough to defend in man because she’s at her best in transition and that’s when our team is at its best. She’s really tough to stop when she can turn her shoulder and go downhill.”

Devine’s offensive repertoire includes the ability to seamlessly step back before launching a 3-point attempt. She’s a master at changing the speed and direction of her dribble, skills that she said came from playing tackle football against boys for seven years.

She even threw a Patrick Mahomes-like shovel pass during a first-quarter fastbreak to teammate Alyssa Young, who found Lexi Demeter open ahead of the field. Demeter sank a layup, was fouled, and made a foul shot for the three-point play.

“I played receiver in tackle football until I was 14, and that’s really where I learned to change speed and change directions like I try to do on the basketball court,” Devine said. “I use a dribble (hesitation) to get into the paint and that came from playing football.

“I think we’re a different team when I’m able to play off screens and get downhill against man-to-man defenses.”

And the Blue Jays, who finished in fourth place in the White Division, look like a different team as one of only four teams still standing in the GMCT.

“We feel like we have a lot to prove,” Devine said. “We’re not done yet.”

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Girls basketball: Former football player leads Middlesex to another GMCT upset