Staff Report
Five years ago, the Egg Harbor Township High girls basketball team went just 8-6 during the covid-shortened season of 2021-2022. But since then, the Eagles have been on a steady incline, as players such as Averie Harding, Lyla Brown and Ava Kraybill helped build the foundation for what would become a 20-plus-win team.
The Eagles won 23 games a year ago and 21 more this winter, making it to the Cape-Atlantic League and South Jersey Group 4 quarterfinals. You don’t win nearly 45 games in two seasons, however, with just a couple of stars. You need role players — the kind of athletes who are going to show up every day, put in the work, and do some of the dirty work that helps teams succeed. Playing solid defense, mixing it up in the paint to get rebounds, fouling when the situation calls for it.
Alina Gonzalez fit that description to a ‘T’ during her career with the Eagles. She was actually the team’s third-leading scorer this season behind Harding and Kraybill, averaging nearly seven points per game, and she averaged close to four rebounds per game. She increased her made field goals, free throws, points, assists and steals in each of her three seasons since breaking the varsity lineup as a sophomore.
She was a role player that year before earning a starting spot as a junior, and performed well, scoring nearly 150 points and putting up double figures in points, including a career-high 16 in a win over Ocean City. As a senior, she hit double figures nine times and had the second double-double of her career in a tough loss against Red Bank Regional in early February.
With Gonzalez on the varsity squad, the Eagles went 58-25 the past three years.
— Dave O’Sullivan, Staff Writer
