Offense sparks Sewanhaka win

A season after Sewanhaka broke through with an appearance in the Nassau Class A girls’ basketball playoffs and won a first-round overtime thriller at New Hyde Park, the Lady Indians are sitting atop the Conference A-II perch at the midway mark.

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 to a 75-45 victory at Lawrence last Friday. 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.

“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.”

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.

Senior Jackie Wisniewski (eight points, 10 rebounds) 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.

“We have a lot of good athletes and they’re starting to understand the extra pass is working,” Soupios said. “They’re not just getting the ball and looking at the basket. They’re using ball fakes and kicking passes to whoever’s open to get a better shot.”

Little changed in the second half for either side. McCall (six) and Jolicoeur combined for 10 points in the third quarter to cap a 22-2 run that stretched the margin to 26. 

Last Friday marked the fourth time in five conference games the Lady Indians scored at least 65 points. The fireworks began Jan. 6 with an 80-56 win over Hewlett that saw Jolicoeur hit for 33 points and eighth-grader Casey Hayes dominate up front with 14 points and 20 rebounds. Four days later, in a game Soupios said is the biggest win of the season so far, McCall scored 15 of her 20 points in the second half to lead a 66-61 comeback victory at Division. Sewanhaka trailed 30-15 at halftime.