By TONY BELLISSIMO
Three days after knocking off Uniondale with no time left on the clock, the seventh-seeded Lady Eagles pulled off perhaps the biggest post-season upset so far with a 58-47 win at No. 2 Elmont last Saturday.
Senior center Stacey Schultz had 24 points and eight rebounds and junior guard Kerri Kelty scored seven of her 12 points for all the points in a 7-0 third-quarter run that allowed Central (16-4) to extend its one-point halftime lead. Sophomore guard Danielle Castelli added 12 points as the Lady Eagles advanced to meet third-seeded Port Washington in a semifinal game on Wednesday evening. The Class A title game is this Saturday at 5 p.m. at Hofstra.
"It was our best game of the season," Coach Denise Schatz said of the team's effort against Elmont, which beat Central back on Feb. 6, 70-42, thanks to a 22-11 third-quarter run. "The first time we played them, they went on a big run in the third quarter and we never recovered. This time we were up one at the half and played strong in the third. Being up six points heading into the fourth was a very good place to be."
The Lady Eagles led 27-26 at the half, and the always-pivotal third quarter saw Schultz, Kelty, Kerry Sass, Meghan Mannion and Stephanie Bulko rise to the occasion. Kelty, who committed three first-half fouls, didn't lose her aggressiveness and keyed an 18-13 quarter.
"I didn't bother to bring up what happened in the third quarter the first time we met," Schatz said. "At the half, I just told the girls what a solid job they were doing and made a few minor adjustments. That was it."
Elmont's T Daley (18 points) and Williams were effective in the first half but not so much over the final 16 minutes. And Central, not known for its foul shooting, went 9-for-10 from the free throw line in the fourth to seal the outcome.
"They kept coming at us but we kept fighting them off," Schatz said.
Now the Lady Eagles will try to avenge an earlier loss to Port Washington. The Vikings handed Central a 60-46 defeat on Jan. 15, but Central played that game without sophomore guard Lisa Longo, whose heroics lifted the team past Uniondale in the playoff opener.
Having blown an 11-point second half lead, the Lady Eagles found themselves trailing 51-50 with five seconds remaining. Longo dribbled the ball upcourt and tried a desperation three-point attempt. The shot missed; it had no chance because Longo was fouled. With the clock at :00, Longo stepped to the foul line and coolly sank two free throws to win the game.
Central was still alive.
"She got up there like she does every day in practice and knocked down two in a row," Schatz said of Longo, who had 13 points. "There was a sigh of relief when she hit the first one because it guaranteed overtime. When the second one went in everyone started jumping around."
