Rutherford made it three straight years of making the state sectional finals as junior forward Taylor Wootton led the way.

Wootton scored a game-high 22 points as the top-seeded Lady Bulldogs knocked out the fourth-seeded West Essex squad, 53-35, in the Group 2 North 2 state sectional semi-final.

Rutherford will find a familiar foe in Tuesday’s final at Cranford High School in Hanover Park, the second seed. The Lady Bulldogs lost a heartbreaker to the same Hanover Park in last season’s sectional final.

The Lady Bulldogs received contributions from the perimeter as both Veronica McGorry and Brittany O’Keefe scored 11 points each against West Essex.

Rutherford wanted to make sure that they would make the state sectional finals from the start as they outscored West Essex 14-2 in the first quarter. The Lady Bulldogs led 29-12 at halftime. The Lady Bulldogs raised its record to 26-2.

While the Queen of Peace boys were the number one seed in Non-Public North A, they could not rid the upset bug on Thursday night. The eighth-seeded Immaculata squad upset the Golden Griffins, 59-55, in the sectional quarterfinals.

The contest came down to the final two minutes as Immaculata hit their shots and also their free throws to undo Queen of Peace. Javae Gilchrist led the Golden Griffins with 20 points while Bilal Dixon was limited to a dozen points in what was his last game for Queen of Peace. Dwayne Moffat added 10 points to the Golden Griffins cause. Queen of Peace finished with a 23-3 record.

St. Mary’s boys basketball team was in the quarterfinals of the Non-Public North B, but they had to travel to fourth-seeded Paterson Catholic and got a taste of one of the nationally ranked teams in the country. The Cougars led the fifth-seeded Gaels, 36-10, after the first quarter and St. Mary’s could not catch up.

The Gaels received double digit scoring from Travis Taylor and Brian Scurti, both with 14. St. Mary’s though could not keep up with the deep Paterson Catholic team that had five different players in double figures. St. Mary’s finished the season with a 15-7 record

North Arlington’s girls basketball team could not pull off the upset bid against a familiar foe on Thursday night. The Lady Vikings were only down by seven points against BCSL National opponent, Secaucus, in the Group 1 North 2 state quarterfinal. North Arlington was the 10th seed while the Patriots were the second seed.

The Lady Vikings could not make up the difference in the second half after being down 41-29 at halftime. North Arlington finished with a 16-9 record after being ousted 68-49. Tara Fisher led the Lady Vikings with 15 points while Marissa Brown pitched in 11 points. North Arlington though could not keep up with the Patriots pair of Andrea Innis and Jenna Totaro who had 49 of the Secaucus 68 points.

For both the North Arlington boys basketball team and the Lyndhurst boys basketball team, it was a short trip in the Group 1 North 2 state sectional tournament in the Feb. 26th first round games.

For the North Arlington boys, they were upset in the first round at the hands of North 13th Street, 56-54. The Vikings finished with a 13-11 record.

It went back and forth for ninth-seeded North Arlington against eighth-seeded North 13th Street, but it was not the Vikings in the end. Peter Santos led the Vikings with 19 points while Joe Monahan contributed 10 points for North Arlington. The Vikings started out slow and were down 14-8 after the first quarter, but were only down by one, 26-25 at halftime.

For 12th-seeded Lyndhurst, the Golden Bears had a harder time, this time against fifth-seeded Essex Tech. Lyndhurst started slow and could not keep up with Essex Tech in the end, 92-68 in the first round of the state sectional tournament.

Anthony Dorio led Lyndhurst with 23 points and Louie Baroody added 12. The Golden Bears finished with a 12-8 record.