Mendham girls basketball is battling through a successful season thus far. They are led by head coach Mrs.Milner who is also a guidance counselor at Mendham. The girls went on a run in the state tournament last year and hope to continue that momentum into this year’s county and state playoffs.
The team is led in most offensive categories by Lia Manuel who scored her 1,000 point earlier this season. I asked Coach Milner what is so special about Lia and she said “Lia leads our team in most statistical categories. She is our leading scorer, leads the team in assists, and is our leading rebounder” That is a very rare feat at this level and Lia became a 4 year varsity player this year.
Team philosophy and chemistry is something almost every coach values and has been amplified by all-time great coaches like Geno Auriemma and Mike Krzyzewski. Tradition in girls basketball runs deep at Mendham as they became a dynasty in the early 2000’s. Coach Milner was asked what she values about it and how she tries to continue it. She said, “Our girls got to experience community support as we made a run in the state tournament last year, as much of that team has returned again this season. Our team definitely feeds off of the energy in the gym, so having community behind us only elevates our level of play.”
When building a program which Coach Milner has had to do in many ways over the last few seasons, building from youth and getting involved in young girls basketball is very helpful. When Coach Milner was asked about this she exclaimed “ We host a youth night where young players in the community can receive a free poster and get autographs from the girls after the game, we host a youth clinic during one of our practices early in the season, and we invite youth teams to play mini-games during half time at our games. The support from the youth programs has been great, which is exactly what I want for the future of the program.” The future of the program is bright.
The State Tournament will start soon in late February and Mendham will expect to have at least a top 7 seed. The state tournament is broken up to 16 teams per section in the group across the North and South and Central of the state. There are two sections in the North which gives it 32 teams, while the South and Central have one section of 16 teams each. In the end, the winner of each section will play in the State tournament Semi Final for all of the public Group 3 schools. There will be 2 teams from the North Representing section 1 and 2, as well as one team from both the South and Central.
The girls made a Cinderella run in the state tournament last season as an 11 seed going all the way to the sectional finals before losing to one seeded Randolph. Randolph ended up winning the state semifinal before losing in the final against Ewing. They did that with a relatively young team only losing one senior that was leading statistical categories.
Mendham girls made a fighting run through states this year before being put out by powerhouse, Colonia.
