By TONY BELLISSIMO
If was the fifth consecutive loss for the Lady Marines, who got half of their points from Lauren Moriarity. The junior guard hit for 17 points, 12 of which came from three-point range. However, no other Long Beach player reached double figures and standout sophomore point guard Tiera Smalls was held to a season-low two points.
"We're being outplayed by a bunch of strong teams," first-year Long Beach coach Pamela Bankey said. "We're playing very hard but we're coming up a bit short."
Katherine Stritzl (11) and Candyce Payton combined for 21 points for South Side, which outscored the Lady Marines 30-17 in the first half. The Lady Cyclones improved to 3-3.
"Defensively is where we're really struggling," Bankey said. "We're having a hard time getting back and we're getting beat for a lot of baskets on transition.
"We need to work on that part of our game. Offensively, we're averaging around 45 points and that's not bad. But we're giving up close to 55 points per game and that makes things difficult.
Nothing has come easy for Long Beach (4-7 overall) since its conference-opening victory over Mepham. The offense clicked for 60 points in that win. But in addition to their two losses to South Side, the Lady Marines fell to Valley Stream Central, Elmont and Hicksville.
Of the recent defeats, the 54-46 setback at Hicksville on Jan. 16 was the one that hurt the most. For one, Hicksville was seeded below Long Beach. And second, Bankey coached the Lady Comets for four seasons in the 1990's.
"It was weird going back there, but after it started it felt just like any other game," Bankey said.
The Lady Marines stormed out of the starting gate and took a 16-7 lead after eight minutes. However, Hicksville outscored its former coach's team in each of the last three quarters to win it.
"We came out strong but then we became flat and never got on track after the first quarter," Bankey said.
Cindy McCarthy scored 19 of her game-high 27 points in the second half and added nine rebounds for the winners. Smalls led Long Beach with 14 points. Moriarity and junior center Melanie Andorfer chipped in with eight apiece.
With a whole week to prepare for their next game, which is this Saturday at 1 p.m. at Calhoun, the Lady Marines should come out with a high level of intensity.
"I think the week off will be good for us," Bankey said. "It gives us a little extra time to regroup as we try to salvage the rest of the season."
LB boys beat Port Washington
The Long Beach boys basketball team improved to 4-1 in Conference I with a 71-57 victory at Port Washington last Friday evening. The Marines got 22 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots from Gerard Burns and 10 points from Juan Soriano in the victory.
Long Beach plays its next four games at home. It hosts Farmingdale this Friday at 4 p.m., South Side on Jan. 31, Great Neck South on Feb. 3 and Freeport on Feb. 6.
