Sports

Lady Pirates Basketball Sinks Kennedy

Short-benched Mepham ride big third quarter past Lady Cougars, 59-46.

The Kennedy Lady Cougars jumped out to a three-point halftime lead Tuesday night at Kennedy, but the Mepham Lady Pirates' huge 24-point third quarter gave them a tremendous boost and their second league win of the season, 59-46.

The first quarter was a roller coaster as the two teams exchanged baskets 10 consecutive times to end the quarter with the Lady Pirates, who only dressed seven players, leading 17-12. The opening frame also put the Lady Cougars in an unfavorable position as two of their leading scorers, Morgan Kitton and Carly Thea, got themselves into foul trouble and were forced to sit for most of the second quarter.

Despite missing Kitton and Thea, the Lady Cougars outscored the Lady Pirates 15-7 in the second quarter behind six different scorers and took a three-point lead into halftime.

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"We played basically the second quarter without Morgan or Carly and we won the second quarter, so that was pretty interesting," Kennedy head coach Debra Cipolla-Minafo said.

While Cipolla-Minafo was happy with the way her girls played in the second quarter, Mepham head coach James Mulvey was not happy with his team.

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"I'm not happy with the first half defensively," he said. "We did nothing to stop them. We thought they had their second-tier kids in because they got into foul trouble, we should have took a five-point lead and made it 12, at least, by halftime. We were actually down three."

The game was back-and-forth for the beginning of the third quarter, but Mepham junior Kristen O'Brien, sophomore Nicole Castaldo and eighth-grader Megan Anderson helped open things up for the Lady Pirates. After Kennedy jumped out to a 39-34 lead, Mepham went on a 14-0 run to end the quarter with a comfortable 48-39 lead.

"Offensively we weren't hitting our shots, it was obvious," O'Brien said after the game. "But we realized the defensive end was going to win the game. The second half, we came out strong. We realized we're a better team in transition so we pushed up the court, got offensive rebounds and that's what won us the game."

Mepham didn't hit a single field goal in the fourth quarter until senior Alyssa Johnson drained a three with 15 seconds left, but it didn't matter as their nearly flawless free throw shooting coupled with their stingy defense gave the Lady Pirates the 13-point win.

Score: Mepham 59, Kennedy 46

Records: Mepham 4-0 (2-0); Kennedy 2-3 (0-2)

Heroes:  O'Brien and Castaldo combined to shoot 8-for-10 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter to help the Lady Pirates keep their distance from a hungry Lady Cougars team.

"They were in desperation, they had to foul us and we got the ball in O'Brien's hands. She ended up with I think 24 points and Castaldo [was in] double figures," Mulvey said. "… At the end it was Kristen O'Brien at the line, making shots, and Castaldo rebounding. Everybody got, what we said, grittier at the end of the game."

O'Brien finished with 24 points, a third of which she got from her foul shots.

"The girls on Kennedy were guarding us hard," she said. "They had good defensive skills. We just worked around the picks and I was trying to get the drive because I knew they would foul."

Turning Point:  The Lady Cougars led 39-38 midway through the third quarter before Anderson nailed a three-pointer to give the Lady Pirates the lead. Mepham went on to score seven more points after Anderson's three and had a nine-point lead heading into the final frame.

"We hung with them, for just two minutes of the game we let them back in the game and from there it just plummeted," Cipolla-Minafo said.

Quotable: "[We had] a long talk in there about how you're get gritty and go play defense and get it back," Mulvey said. "Defense and rebounding got us back in the game, not our scoring. … I thought we did a little better of a job in the second half."

Bottom Line: Despite the loss, the Lady Cougars thought they were competitive and have a lot to take away from their loss. 

"We went out there really, really hard," Thea said. "The one thing is that I think we got a little tired and that one minute gave it back to them. I think no matter what, out team can always come back. … I think this is a great team that we played, and our team is just as good, and we can be just as good."

Key Stat: The Lady Pirates outscored the Lady Cougars 35-19 in the second half.

Who's Next? 1/4, Kennedy @ Valley Stream Central, 7 p.m.; 12/30, Carle Place @ Mepham, 12 p.m.

 

Box Score

Teams 1 2 3 4 F Mepham 17 7 24 11 59 Kennedy 12 15 12 7 46 Mepham Points Kennedy Points O'Brien 24 Keller 11 Castaldo 11 Coluccio 10 Galgano 9 Hulkower 9 Picinich 5 Kitton 6 Hishmen 4 Venezia 4 Anderson 3 Thea 2 Johnson 3 Baum 2 - - Finkel 2


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