By Brian Dessart
"[Melissa] Gelb and [Caitlin] Tamashiro really stepped it up," said East Rockaway assistant coach Tim O'Hagan. "These are the greatest girls I've ever coached."
In every game there's a hero, and in this one it was East Rockaway's Gelb. After Southold inched its way to within six points with two minutes left in the fourth quarter on a three-point basket by Amanda Capone, Gelb scored the next five points while the defense didn't allow Southold to score again.
"I went into my lay-ups hoping to be fouled," said Gelb, who finished with 21 points. "But it turned out I was making the lay-ups."
After an eight-point scoring flurry by Gelb in the first quarter helped lift the Rocks to a 13-2 lead, East Rockaway didn't score in the final 2:40 of the quarter. Southold scored 11 straight points, tying the score at 13 on a two-pointer by Kate Smith with seven seconds remaining.
"We knew they had a good half-court defense," Gelb said. "If you let them grab the rebounds, they'll put them in."
But there was a bit of role reversal in the second quarter. After Southold grabbed a 21-15 advantage on Capone's back-to-back three-pointers, the Rocks held Southold scoreless in the final 3:45 of the half. Gelb once again displayed some of her scoring magic, burying two two-point baskets in the final 2:00 to tie the score 21-all.
"We played the press in the first quarter, and we haven't played it all year long," said O'Hagan. "It took us out of our flow. Once we started to concentrate on our half-court defense, we did OK."
In the third quarter, Southold managed to tie the score at 25 on two free-throws by Lisa Goodski, after a personal foul was called on East Rockaway. But Tamashiro helped widen East Rockaway's lead to 40-28 with two three-pointers in the final 3:00.
Capone finished with 21 points, while the Rocks' Meredith Levison finished with 13 and Tamashiro scored 12.
East Rockaway went on to defeat Tuxedo, 42-33, in the Class C Southeast Regional Finals on March 7 at Mount St. Mary's College in Newburgh. That win earned them a spot at the state's final four at Troy this Saturday, March 15.
