Balanced attack leads South Side

After six lead changes in the second quarter, visiting South Side opened the third with a 10-point run to take command and held off Wantagh, 52-42, in an early showdown for the Conference A-II girls’ basketball top spot on Jan. 7.

Both teams entered the game with identical 4-0 conference marks. The Lady Cyclones’ starting backcourt tandem of junior Jourdin Thomas (19) and sophomore Jenna Lopez combined for 28 points to lead what’s been a balanced attack for first-year head coach Dan Ferrick.

“Against a well-coached team like Wantagh, you have to change things up constantly or else it’s not going to work,” Ferrick said. “They had us scouted pretty good, but every single girl that stepped on the court for us tonight had a role in the outcome.”

Senior forwards Maria Karanasos and Laura McNally had 10 rebounds apiece and scored eight and seven points, respectively, while senior Grace Kelleher provided a spark during a wild second quarter with five points. The Lady Warriors, the Nassau Class A runners-up last season, got 13 points from sophomore Julianna Kissane and 10 points and 10 rebounds from senior Darcie Smith.

“We’ve been playing pretty well, but tonight we didn’t shoot well late in the game,” Wantagh head coach Stan Bujacich said. “We made a run, but the scoreboard was stuck at 46-42 for a while and we just couldn’t get anything to fall after that.”

South Side (9-1) took the lead for good on a Karanasos layup with just over a minute gone in the second half. Thomas, who transferred back to the district from Long Island Lutheran, went 4-for-4 from the foul line over the final 1:07 to seal the team’s sixth consecutive victory.

“We’re always prepared for Jourdin to get doubled, and that opens up things for everyone else,” Ferrick said of Thomas, who’s averaging 16.6 points through 10 games. “It’s difficult to stop her, and we’ve got plenty of other girls who can score,” he added.

Sophomore Cheyenne Johnson’s basket early in the second quarter provided Wantagh (6-4) with its first lead at 12-10. Thomas answered with a short jumper and free throw to set the tone for an exciting back-and-forth eight minutes that included a pair of treys by Kissane, one by freshman teammate Caitlin Albanese, a traditional three-point play for Smith, and a nifty end-to-end rush by South Side senior Kelly O’Sullivan.

At halftime, Ferrick reminded the Lady Cyclones what they focused on the day before. “We beat Roslyn earlier in the week but we didn’t play well,” he said. “So we looked at some film and practiced being more patient with the ball.”

Lopez, a standout at the JV level under Ferrick last season, scored five of her nine points in the third quarter when South Side led by nine on three occasions. Wantagh chipped away and trailed 41-36 heading into the fourth, but it never came within a possession of getting even.

“It was a hard-fought game,” Bujacich said.