East Rockaway rallies past Malverne

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Over the past quarter century, the Malverne and East Rockaway girls’ basketball programs have combined for 17 county championships, but, of late, both teams have had more downs than up and neither has been able to find consistency.

What has been a constant, however, is that regardless of whether the teams are flying high or struggling, when they meet on the court, the games are vigorously contested.

Such was the case when the Lady Mules and Lady Rocks met last Friday afternoon. Senior Kim McCann made one of two free throws with 1:11 to play to give visiting East Rockaway (5-3, 2-2 in Conference B-V) its first lead since early in the game, and the Rocks held for a 41-38 victory.

Sophomore center Alessia Drevnyak had 10 points, 10 rebounds, and five blocked shots for the Lady Rocks. Malverne senior Alexis Lopez finished with a game-high 13 points to lead the Lady Mules. 

After freshman Alexis Lake scored on a put back to give the Mules a 38-36 lead, East Rockaway’s Rachel Graves, who was playing in her first varsity game, announced her presence with authority. The freshman guard hustled to grab a rebound in the paint and banked the ball home to tie things up with 2:30 remaining.

While the game wasn’t pretty, East Rockaway head coach Karin Leary will take the win. “We turned the ball over too much, and never really got into any flow on offense,” Leary said. “This was a sloppy game. Our game has to be getting up and down the floor, and scoring off turnovers. We had a lot of different girls step up today when we were down a bunch. All nine girls contributed.”

Led by a pair of threes from senior guard Stephanie Gee, the Lady Mules went on a 10-0 run and took a 21-10 lead. But, the Rocks battled back with a corner jumper from Diana Locoteta and four straight points from Marisa Felbinger to cut the lead to four at the half.

With points hard to come by, Graves and junior Rachael Putelo were difference-makers on the defensive end of the floor in the second half. The pair pressured the Malverne backcourt, and forced some timely turnovers.  

The Lady Mules hurt themselves at the foul line, converting on just 4 of 17 free throws. Head coach Mike Pelan knows his team let one slip away. “We can’t make that many mistakes and miss all those free throws if we’re going to be successful,” Pelan said. “We played hard, but we need to have better composure.”

Drevnyak and senior guard Ally Cilluffo, who scored nine points, each hit a free throw in the waning moments to increase East Rockaway’s lead. McCann pulled down 14 rebounds for the Lady Rocks. Gee finished with eight points for Malverne, which fell to 5-6 overall, 0-4 in conference games.

The Lady Rocks host Carle Place on Friday night at 7:15 p.m.