It seems like the state sectional final is not their thing.

For the third year in a row, the Rutherford girls basketball team made the state sectional final and for the third year in a row the Lady Bulldogs went home unhappy.

It was another frustrating year for Rutherford. Last year they held the lead, only to see Hanover Park snatch it away in the final minutes.

This season, the Lady Bulldogs led early but the rest of the game Hanover Park controlled it with a four corner offense and Rutherford made some tacky fouls that put them in foul trouble and eventually knocked out Taylor Wootton and Nicole Leonard.

The Lady Bulldogs could not hit the outside shot that would keep Hanover Park from packing their five players into the paint.

The result of all of those circumstances equaled a 36-26 loss by Rutherford in Cranford in the Group 2 North 2 state sectional final on March 4.

"We got ahead 8-0 and then we could not make a jump shot," said Rutherford head coach Nick DeBari.

Wootton fouled out in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter and Nicole Leonard fouled out in the third quarter. The junior forward would lead the team in points with 10 while senior Jacki Mann, which would turn out to be her last game as a Lady Bulldog, had eight points.

"They packed in five girls in the paint and they dared us to shoot from the perimeter," said DeBari. "We shot well at first but then could not hit as the game went along."

While Hanover Park only hit six field goals, Rutherford shot only 8 of 42 from the field for 19 percent.

The difference though strikingly was from the free throw line where Hanover Park collected 24 points from the charity stripe while Rutherford would not get to the line not even as much and only had 10 points from the line. Eleven of the free throw points were from Hanover Park’s Lindsey Singer.

"We made some poor fouls, but they (referees) were not calling the physical fouls inside while they were calling us for bumping the dribbler," said DeBari.

Another problem was Hanover Park’s stalling offensive attack where they would hold onto the ball. The stall would also throw off the Lady Bulldogs full court pressure that was never able to get on track.

"If we had been ahead 15-0 or 16-0, their four corner offense would not have been as effective we would have just sat out at the three-point line," said DeBari.

While the outcome was the same, the game was different. "Last year, there was much better flow and this game there was no flow at all," said DeBari pointing to the stalling tactics of Hanover Park.

With the loss Rutherford finishes with a 26-3 record with the lone losses coming in the Joe Poli Holiday Tournament and the Bergen County Tournament, both to Old Tappan and Hanover Park.