EWING — London Bennett may only be a sophomore, but she is at the core of everything the Ewing High varsity girls’ basketball team is trying to do, especially when it comes to pace. After just one season with the Blue Devils, Bennett has already shown that she was listening all the times head co ach Dan Montferrat and his assistants Tanya Kauffman and Jamie VanHise were in her ear last year. Saturday when Ewing hosted Shore Regional in Emil Wandishin Gymnasium, the still improving 5-foot-8 point guard showed the promise everyone sees in her. Bennett turned in nine points, 10 assists, seven steals and six rebounds to help her Blue Devils beat the visiting bunch, 66-45. Now Bennett is a little too young to remember the pre-pandemic days when Ewing and Shore Regional annually appeared in the state semifinals played at Deptford High. But these two groups of Blue Devils are still teams with which to be reckoned in New Jersey girls’ basketball circles. “I told the girls Shore Regional has won as many sectionals as we have, so they really put the work watching film as a group ahead of this game,” Montferrat said. “We wanted to match the intensity of their two top players – senior point guard Ava Coyle and sophomore guard Scarlett Watson.” With Bennett helping out all over the floor, Ewing was able to begin to pull away in the first quarter and increase its lead each quarter after that. “When we’re going up and down, back and forth the way we want to be, it can get a little tiring, but usually all I need is a minute and I’m right back at it,” Bennett said. “The way we play, we create a lot of momentum. We get psyched up off of it as we get our transition points. With a lot of steals early, we get into the other team’s heads.” The visitors were still within a point (8-7) in the first three minutes when Bennett kicked her game into high gear. It started with a steal and a lead pass to 5-8 senior guard Lillie Alston for a layup. In the next minute, Bennett came up with a defensive rebound and two steals, all of which led to points for Ewing. Her hard work during a three-minute span sent the home team on a 12-0 run that gave it a 20-7 lead with 2:43 left in the stanza. Of course, Alston had a lot to do with that, scoring 11 first-quarter points on the way to a game-high 21 with eight rebounds and five steals of her own. “I feel like I’m doing a pretty good job of getting my teammates their points,” Bennett said. “One thing we’ve improved on is coming at teams with pace. When we score, we don’t stop.” With 5-11 sophomore forward Analis Maldonado adding 13 points (with three 3-point field goals) and 12 rebounds, plus 5-10 senior forward Taylor Williams grabbing a game-high 17 rebounds to go with nine points, Ewing kept increasing its lead even if it wasn’t always as sharp as it would have liked. But this was just the Blue Devils third game this season. “London’s doing a lot of things that we were talking about during her first season. Now, in Year Two, she’s right there with me,” Montferrat said. “She’s controlling the pace and tempo (defensively) as well as setting the pace and tempo (offensively).” So even with Ava Coyle leading Shore Regional with 14 points, while her younger sister, freshman Emily, scored 13 and freshman forward/guard Sydney Tilton scored 12, the other Blue Devils were not able to get the game back under double digits after the first 1:12 of the second quarter. SHORE REGIONAL (45) ACoyle 4-3-14, Ascolese 1-0-2, Watson 1-1-4, Tilton 5-2-12, Madison 0-0-0, LDavis 0-0-0, ECoyle 4-2-13, Brutman 0-0-0, Dougherty 0-0-0, Painchaud 0-0-0, DSmith 0-0-0. Totals — 15-8-45. EWING (66) Alston 7-6-21, TWilliams 4-1-9, KSmith 1-0-2, Glover 0-0-0, McClees 0-0-0, Wadley 2-2-6, Bennett 4-1-9, SWhite 0-0-0, Maldonado 4-2-13, Hadden 2-2-6, Hickmond 0-0-0. Totals — 24-14-66. ShoreRegional(1-1)              11    16      8    10    —    45 Ewing (3-0)                           20    20    13    13    —    66 3-point goals — ACoyle 3, Watson, ECoyle 3 (SR), Alston, Maldonado 3 (E). ...read more read less