MacArthur holds off East Meadow

MacArthur’s once-comfortable 13-point advantage midway through the fourth quarter dwindled to a basket in the final minute Saturday afternoon as host East Meadow staged a furious rally in a showdown of the top two girls’ basketball teams in Nassau Conference AA-1.

In an attempt to take the lead, the Jets created an open look from three-point range with less than 10 seconds remaining in regulation but were unable to convert. MacArthur’s Meaghan Campbell secured the rebound and a 60-56 victory with a pair of free throws.

“I’m not surprised it came down to the end because we’re both really good teams,” said Campbell, one of its seven sophomores. “It was a fun game,” she added. “We’re a close group and we’re excited to keep our streak going.”

The Generals, who inched closer to a fourth consecutive conference title and won their 38th straight conference game, had four double-digit scorers led by a career-high 17 from sophomore Ysabelle Perillo. Campbell had 16 points and 14 rebounds, and senior Sara Kealey and sophomore Gabby Nicolini chipped in 10 points apiece.

“This a team that doesn’t crumble down the stretch,” head coach Dave Radtke said after MacArthur improved to 12-3 overall and 9-0 in AA-1. “They got back in the game with some big threes and I thought we did a nice job of keeping our composure.

“We play at such a frantic pace, it’s not that easy for us to step on the brakes and burn the clock,” he added. “It’s a big win. It puts us two games ahead of East Meadow and three ahead of everyone else.”  

The Jets (11-5 overall, 8-2 in AA-1), who were looking to avenge a 72-62 defeat at MacArthur Dec. 18, got a game-high 26 points from junior Allie Twible and a career-high 24 from freshman Angelina Cronin.

“It’s not the result we wanted, but playing in this type of game can only help us in the playoffs,” East Meadow head coach Peter Olenik said. “It was a playoff-type atmosphere that’ll help us going forward. It was a game with a lot of runs and we came close to completing the comeback.”

MacArthur scored the game’s first seven points and led 14-10 after the opening quarter. The Jets responded with an 11-4 run to begin the second and went ahead for the first time after Cronin sank three free throws after drawing a foul from behind the arc.

Trailing 21-18, the Generals responded by scoring 13 straight highlighted by four points apiece from Perillo and Campbell, a Kealey trey and senior Ani Angelakis’ field goal.

“We’re a balanced-scoring team and our defense has been great all season,” Radtke said. “We feed off our defense.”

MacArthur also enjoyed a 12-4 run to open the second half, keyed by Perillo and Angelakis three-pointers, and led by as many as 14 late in the third quarter.

Twible and Cronin made the Generals sweat, however, combining for four three-pointers and all 20 Jets points in the fourth.