Defense sets tone for Mepham

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There were a number of unknowns for Mepham at the start of the 2015-16 basketball season, but the Lady Pirates have answered those questions in simple terms with wins, and plenty of them.

Mepham ran its record to 10-1 overall (5-0 in Conference AA-III) with a 37-32 road victory over MacArthur last Monday. Trailing by two entering the fourth quarter, the Lady Pirates outscored the Lady Generals, 14-7, for the final margin, with senior Maeve Testa scoring nine of her 11 points.

“It’s a group of great kids that work hard,” head coach Jim Mulvey said. “What’s good is we’ve been tested. We’ve been down in the fourth quarter and had to come back. Nothing’s been easy and we’ve had to fight [every game].”

Testa, a returning All-Conference honoree who missed the start of the season due to injury, had a big impact in the paint, pulling down a game-high 21 rebounds including nine on the offensive glass. She was one of three Mepham players to hit double figures in the category, as sophomore Julia Anderson had 11 and senior Taylor O’Brien grabbed 10.

“In [seven] of our 11 games we’ve held teams in the 30s,” Mulvey said of the strong team defense the Lady Pirates have played. “We preach hard man-to-man and being responsible for guarding your girl. Man-to-man is hard work and commitment and not fouling.”

Coming out of halftime, the Lady Pirates threw a little wrinkle in their defense and it helped them climb back into the game. Changing to a box-and-one with sophomore Kara Castaldo guarding MacArthur’s All-County junior, Angeline Klein, the defense held the Lady Generals to just 13 points over the final 16 minutes. And after scoring 10 points in the first half and helping stake the Lady Generals to a 19-11 edge, Klein was limited to just five over the final two quarters, with two of those points coming on free throws in the final minute. “We played hard defense when we needed to,” Mulvey said. “There was a stretch where they didn’t score for about seven minutes in between the third and fourth quarters.”

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