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Light Rain Fog/Mist Mepham falls in quarterfinals
For much of the first 18 games, Mepham’s arsenal of perimeter shooters packed a powerful offensive punch. Teams couldn’t key on one Lady Pirate, because another would usually appear wide open on the outside and ready to sink the long jumper.
The fifth-seeded Lady Pirates (16-3 overall), however, ran into a MacArthur team that had too much size in the low post, slowed down the tempo and took advantage of Mepham’s shooting struggles to win a Nassau Class AA girls’ basketball quarterfinal playoff game, 52-43, on Feb. 23.
“We played really hard but the shots didn’t fall,” Mepham coach Jim Mulvey said.
The No. 4 Lady Generals committed five turnovers within the first four minutes and fell behind 6-0 early on a pair of three-pointers by sophomores Mary Galgano and Samantha Hirshmeh, but regrouped to score 23 of the game’s next 27 points. Offensively, the Lady Pirates struggled to convert shots, and defensively, it was a game-long, uphill battle against a much bigger MacArthur team. The Lady Generals trio of Jenna Cozza (13 rebounds), Michelle Cozza (12) and Taylor Kenney (10) consistently limited Mepham to one-shot possessions.
“There’s a reason why they’ve only lost to the top two seeds [this season],” Mulver said of MacArthur, which improved to 15-3 with the win and advanced to meet top-seeded and defending champion Baldwin in the semis. “We knew it would be a tough battle.”
A three-pointer by Jillian Picinch with 26.6 seconds left in the fourth quarter cut the lead to just 48-43, but MacArthur scored the game’s final four points to end the comeback bid. “Those threes are why it was only a two-possession game [in the last 30 seconds],” Mulvey said of his team, which still converted six for the game. “We feel like we’re never out of it.”
Galgano led the team with 10 points, while Picinch had nine. Junior Kristen O’Brien scored eight points, and eighth-grader Megan Anderson, who had a crucial three-pointer in the third quarter waved off because the ball hit a gym rope, added seven. “They are very unselfish and nobody cares who scores,” Mulvey said of the balanced attack.
