Late basket lifts Long Beach over MacArthur

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Leading scrappy MacArthur by as many as a dozen points in the fourth quarter of last Saturday’s Conference AA-III girls’ basketball matchup, host Long Beach needed some late heroics from freshman sensation Kadaja Bailey to pull out the victory.

Bailey drove against two defenders and hit a running one-hander in the lane with 3.8 seconds remaining to give the Lady Marines a 56-54 win. She scored 11 of her game-high 27 points in the third quarter, while senior Alexis Farina added 15. A desperation midcourt heave by the Lady Generals, who got 20 points from sophomore Angeline Klein, fell short at the buzzer.

“She’s a very smart player and there’s nothing she can’t do,” Long Beach head coach Kristin Ciccone said of Bailey, who has five 30-point games out of nine. “She knew the situation, and as soon as I yelled to drive middle she did and scored.

“People in the community will tell you when she was younger she’d always have a basketball in her hands, even outside during the winter she’d be shooting and dribbling at the park,” she added.

Prior to the game-winning basket, MacArthur (4-7 overall, 1-5 in AA-II) held Bailey in check for almost the final six minutes after she gave Long Beach (5-4 overall, 2-3 in AA-III) a 52-40 advantage with 5:46 to play. “She’s tough, and probably the best player in the conference,” Lady Generals head coach Dave Radtke said of Bailey. “There’s no easy way to defend her.

“We’re young and I thought we did a nice job getting back in the game,” he added. “We started to attack and get to the rim. Our Achilles heel has been foul shooting. We didn’t miss as many today, but it’s something we have to improve. We lost to Calhoun by seven and went to the foul line 43 times, and we lost to Herricks by two and went to the line 42 times. Both games we were about 30 percent.”

MacArthur went 9-for-16 from the line in the fourth quarter last Saturday but made things interesting behind Klein, sophomore Shannon Myles, and junior Brianna Impastato. Klein had five points and Myles a basket and two assists during a nine-point spurt that cut Long Beach’s lead to 52-49. Then after Farina hit another clutch jumper, the Lady Generals scored five straight, including two baskets by Impastato, to pull even with 17 seconds remaining.

“You can’t take anything away from them,” Ciccone said. “They drove to the basket pretty well and made it come down to the end.”

The Lady Marines, who never trailed, scored the game’s first eight points and led 15-11 after the opening quarter. Their lead was 10 early in the second after a pair of treys by Farina, and rose to 12 before MacArthur senior Ashley Simoes (eight points) sparked a run to cut the margin to 29-22 at halftime.

“We’ve had some ups and downs, but the best part about our team is we never give up,” Ciccone said.

The teams meet again in the regular-season finale at MacArthur on Feb. 6 at 6:45 p.m.