Three Party: Lady Pirates Sink Valley Stream Central with Three-Pointers

Balanced scoring, rebounding, three-point shooting and a 20-0 third quarter gave the Mepham Lady Pirates their seventh win of the season on Thursday night, as they blew past the Valley Stream Central Lady Eagles 61-37.

Junior Kristen O’Brien led the way for the Lady Pirates with 17 points, while sophomore Mary Galgano had a career-high 16 points.

Sophomores Samantha Hishmeh and Nicole Castaldo each finished with eight points and eighth-grader Megan Anderson added nine points of her own to help the Lady Pirates continue their undefeated season.

“The points were pretty even across the board because we worked the ball around,” O’Brien said. “The second half we woke up and realized we couldn’t force passes. We drove into the paint, found the open girl and they had open shots.”

Score: Mepham 61, Valley Stream Central 37

Records: Valley Stream Central 1-3 (1-4); Mepham 4-0 (7-0)

Hero: The Lady Pirates had several standout players in Thursday night’s win, but Galgano was on fire from the perimeter and made the most of several open looks at the basket.

“I was open a lot. Kristen just got me the ball and I took that opportunity to shoot,” she said. “I think we played together really well. We all took shots and we all had an equal amount of points.”

“Mary Galgano had a career-high of 16,” Mepham head coach Jim Mulvey said after the win. “… She just had confidence tonight.”

While Galgano’s career-high was a big key to Mepham’s win, Mulvey acknowledged that several players had huge games for first-place Lady Pirates.

“Kids stepped up. … We had Sammie Hishmeh with eight, Castaldo with eight and Megan Anderson with nine,” he said. “… Anderson comes off the bench as a sixth-man and always hits the big shot.”

Turning Point: Mepham actually trailed 20-16 after the first quarter. Valley Steam Central wasn’t missing much from the field, but the Lady Pirates began to turn the tides in second quarter and jumped out to a 30-24 halftime lead. However, it was the third quarter where Mepham proved to be the stronger team, as the Lady Pirates completely shut down the Lady Eagles and outscored them 20-0.

“Third quarter we held them to zero points, which was our goal,” Mulvey said. “When we saw two minutes left, then one minute left, I called a timeout and said ‘we’re not letting them score.’”

 A 20-point quarter is an accomplishment for most high school teams, but holding an opponent to no points in a given quarter is not easy, and it was something the Lady Pirates were quite proud of.

“It felt pretty good shutting a team out, [holding them to] zero points,” Anderson said. “We hope it’s like that later in the season too.”

Quotable: “If we’re going to go any further or win the conference or do anything, Hishmeh and Galgano have to score and they did it tonight. They just stepped up,” Mulvey said about the team’s supporting cast. “Everybody knows who O’Brien is, but it’s the role players that have to step up and they did tonight.”

Bottom Line: The Lady Pirates came out a little flat and a hungry Valley Stream Central team took advantage.

“Unfortunately, I think it took us a quarter to wake up,” O’Brien said. “We realized our passes weren’t there, we were in a little bit of slump with our shots, we realized we had to find the open girl and get some open shots.”

Mulvey added: “We actually switched to man for a little while, which we haven’t played a lot of man. I think it kind of got us going a little bit better and it got us a little bit of a lead.”

After the first quarter the Lady Pirates began moving the ball around and were dominate on the boards, which made a quick and noticeable impact on the score.

“We definitely team rebounded a lot better and we had a lot of assists,” Anderson said. “Luckily people were open and we got them the ball.”

There were a lot of positives to focus on after Thursday’s game, but another was the 10 three-pointers made by the lady Pirates. Castaldo, Galgano, Hishmeh and O’Brien each had two while Anderson and Danielle Replogle added one.

“The offense is always going to be there,” Mulvey said. “We had 10 threes tonight. Nine fouls made and 10 threes. So last game we made them at the foul line and this was our three-point game.”

Key Stat: Valley Stream Central was held scoreless for just over 13 minutes from the second quarter to the fourth quarter.

Who’s Next? Jan. 11, Mepham @ Long Beach, 4:30 p.m.