Lawrence searches for consistency

After a promising start, Lawrence fell victim to hot-shooting Sewanhaka last Friday, 75-45, in a Conference A-II girls’ basketball game involving two teams heading in different directions.

Junior Shantell McCall posted a triple-double (11 points, 13 rebounds, 10 assists) and senior Celine Jolicoeur scored a game-high 21 points to lead Sewanhaka. Junior Rachel Wisniewski and freshman Michelle Niles added 13 points apiece for the visitors, who scored at least 15 points in every quarter on the way to improving to 5-0 in conference play and 10-2 overall.

Lawrence, which lost for the fifth time in six conference games and slipped to 2-10 overall, got 17 points from senior Gabi Golan and 12 points from junior Nicole Robinson. “The effort is always there but we need to become more consistent and a little deeper,” Lady Golden Tornadoes coach George Klein said. “We got off to a good start today but we couldn’t sustain it. Sewanhaka’s a good team and kept coming at us.”

Lawrence got baskets from four of its five starters in the first quarter and led 17-15 after Robinson’s bank shot from inside the paint, but Niles opened the second quarter with a trey to put the Lady Indians back in front and they never looked back. “We’ve been playing well and the main thing now is to stay focused,” Sewanhaka coach Alex Soupios said. “We’ve played everyone in the conference once and our goal is to go as hard the second time around the schedule as we did the first.”

Senior Jackie Wisniewski sandwiched baskets around a trey by Golan, and then Rachel Wisniewski got hot from the perimeter and Sewanhaka was off to the races. Rachel drained three shots from behind the arc and the lead was 37-28 at the half despite senior Natalie Leger’s six points for Lawrence.

It was the third time in four games since a win over Plainedge that the Lady Golden Tornadoes allowed at least 67 points. But on the positive side, their offense produced at least 60 in three of five conference games and had four players score in double figures each time.

Robinson had 27 points, Golan 14, Olivia Delgroso 11 and Dina Goldstein 10 in an 80-64 loss to Bethpage Jan .19, Golan led the way with 18 in a tough 67-65 overtime loss at Division Jan. 17, and scored 20 points along with Leger in an 84-62 defeat at Hewlett Jan. 12.

“We’ve been able to string a couple of good quarters together most games,” said Klein, “but we haven’t played 32 minutes consistently.”

Lawrence goes for a season sweep of Plainedge this Friday when it hits the road for an 8 p.m. start.