After a last-second loss to Seaford soiled its unbeaten conference record, the North Shore girls’ basketball team had something to prove when it visited Plainedge on Jan. 28.
With another conference title still very much alive, the Vikings made another large statement when they took out Plainedge, 46-37, for a giant road win.
The Maroon followed up that Plainedge win by bludgeoning Island Trees, 62-39, last Saturday to lift its Conference A2 mark to 9-1.
If the Vikings win their final two conference games, they will be at least co-conference champions with Seaford. North Shore, which has won the last three conference titles, finishes its league schedule against Malverne and Friends Academy.
“To be conference champions coming into the season with such little expectations, we were the underdogs,’’ Erin Lily La Rosa said. “We came out and showed people what they weren’t expecting. Winning a conference championship would prove something.’
With a halftime adjustment getting La Rosa more involved in running the offense up top and taking pressure off superstar Sofia Della Ratta, the Vikings emerged from a 23-22 halftime deficit.
La Rosa finished with 8 points, 6 rebounds, 4 steals and 3 assists and Annabella Misiti chipped in with 12 points. Per usual, Della Ratta copped a game-high 21 points with 10 rebounds.
As large a key was North Shore holding Plainedge to just 9 points in the second half until the last 45 seconds when the Red Devils scored 5 in garbage time.
“Plainedge has tough, scrappy kids that really get after you defensively and make every bucket hard,’’ North Shore head coach Keith Freund said. “We struggled early to score. The girls are very smart. The coaches made some adjustments at halftime. Defensively, they listened, and we stymied their offense and ran ours through La Rosa. That opened up a lot of stuff for us.’’
On the defensive side, Freund sicked defensive specialist Ally Basile on Plainedge sophomore star Peyton Wise, a 5-foot-5 tough shooting guard. “We told Basile to shut her off and she did a great job,’’ Freund said.
Plainedge still has aspirations after falling to 5-4 in conference play as it would clinch a playoff berth with a win over Friends Academy. Wise is averaging 11.3 points and 7 rebounds despite her youth.
“She’s a shooter and shoots the 3 pretty well but also gets to the basket,’’ Plainedge head coach Sarah Tansey said.
The Red Devils point guard is Allie Younghans, also a sophomore who is averaging 4 assists, 4 steals and 7.9 points. Only eight players are on the Plainedge roster that doesn’t have height.
“Any game it could be any girl,” Tansey said. “I could give all eight of their names.’’
For North Shore, the victory showed The Sea Cliff/Glen Head program is more than Della Ratta, who often set screens to open things for La Rosa and others. “She did what it took to win so it showed her character also,’’ Freund said of Della Ratta.
“It’s tough for Sophia,’’ La Rosa added. “She’s always face-guarded. I wouldn’t be ready to run the offense without the rest of team all constantly moving around the court. It allowed openings to drive to the net.’’
A chance to post a second straight unbeaten league record got squashed by Seaford. But that’s now behind the Vikings. “Playing Plainedge is always a tough game,’’ La Rosa said. “Both teams go into it really wanting to win. We wanted that victory more than anything coming off the loss to Seaford. We used the loss from Seaford to motivate us.’’