Offense Carries Lady Pirates Past Carey Basketball

Mepham head coach Jim Mulvey preached defense to his team before Thursday afternoon’s game at Carey High School, and while the defense didn’t show up, the offense did as the Lady Pirates scored a season-high 70 points en route to a 70-51 victory over the Carey Seahawks.

Mepham had five players in double-figure scoring. Sophomore Samantha Hishmeh scored a career-high 14 points and was 4-for-8 from three-point range to help lead the Lady Pirates.

Junior Kristen O’Brien added 13 points and eight rebounds, while sophomore Nicole Castaldo finished with 19 points and a career-high 16 rebounds.

Sophomore Mary Galgano added 12 points and eighth-grader Megan Anderson had 10 after scoring a career-high 17 in the Lady Pirates’ last game. Senior Jillian Picinich had a well-balanced game with two points, five assists, four rebounds and three steals.

Despite the big offensive showing, Mulvey was not happy with his team’s defense. “I honestly think we played a terrible defensive game,” he said. “… They were strong with the ball as far as dribbling past, we just didn’t get in the spots. We played like a really young team defensively.”

Score: Mepham 70, Carey 51

Records: Mepham 6-0 (9-0); Carey 0-6 (0-8)

Heroes: Hishmeh’s career-high 14 points was highlighted by a red-hot fourth quarter where she picked up eight points and helped keep the Lady Pirates ahead late in the game.

“I wasn’t really feeling it in the last game but I kind of just picked up my confidence and took it over today,” Hishmeh said. “… I think we did well overall.”

“Sammy struggled in the first half, not playing good defense, picked up three fouls, but Sammy kept her about it,” Mulvey added. “… They boxed O’Brien for most of the game, so kids have to step and shoot the ball and Sammy was the kid in the second half every time we needed a big shot. I didn’t think we shot well, but she did in the second half.”

Also stepping up for Mepham was Castaldo who grabbed 16 rebounds in what was a physical and tough rebounding game for the Lady Pirates.

“It was definitely difficult,” Castaldo said of the rebounding. “They were getting behind us and pushing with all of their force to push us underneath the basket, so it was hard to try to box them out. We really had to fight.”

Turning Point: The Lady Pirates led by just five after the opening quarter and Carey was threatening early. But Mepham had a big second quarter that included a 15-5 run to close out the half. Castaldo and O’Brien combined for 16 of their team’s 18 second-quarter points.

Quotable: “I think we did very well, but I think we could have done 10 times better on defense,” Castaldo said. “We were letting girls drive past us, we weren’t getting down in a defensive position, but we ended up still doing well. Thank God our offense came along. I still feel we could have done a lot better tonight.”

Bottom Line: The offense was as good as ever on Thursday, but the Lady Pirates surrendered 51 points to a team that has not scored more than 41 points all season.

“We were kind of slow on defense,” Hishmeh said. “We weren’t talking. But I think we picked it up [in the second half]. We weren’t getting low enough.”

Mepham’s ability to box out and grab rebounds was lacking from the start and it was obvious later in the game. Carey, led by center Elizabeth Osowiecki who grabbed a game-high 20 boards, was able to steal several points by getting second and third rebounds.

“We were missing assignments on boxing out, we didn’t get in a good stance on defense and we’re not happy giving up 51 to Carey tonight,” Mulvey said. “We can score, we know that with 70 [points], but we have to stop letting people score on us and we have to box out.”

Key Stat: Mepham was 7-for-9 from the free-throw line, while Carey was just 2-for-12.

Who’s Next? Jan. 18, Great Neck South @ Mepham, 6:15 p.m.

Box Score