Thursday, October 1, 2026
Shutting down one of Nassau County’s most prolific scorers for the second time in as many meetings propelled South Side to the Nassau Conference AA-3 girls’ basketball title Wednesday night.
The Cyclones held visiting Manhasset’s Danielle Perfetto to a pair of field goals and one free throw for 5 points in a 49-41 victory that sealed their second conference championship in four seasons. Junior Katelyn Mullen paced the offense with 18 points, including clutch back-to-back traditional three-point plays in the third quarter when the hosts erased a three-point deficit to lead by eight entering the fourth.
“We were so focused in practice this week and in warmups,” Mullen said. “We’ve always talked about adding to the banner on the wall. It’s such a good feeling.”
Senior point guard Ellie Lennon was in command of the offense and chipped in 6 points and 6 assists. Junior Sophia Corvetti had 9 points and 8 rebounds, and senior Maddie Woo had some key late buckets as part of an 8-point effort.
“It’s not easy to beat a team like Manhasset twice,” South Side head coach Dan Ferrick said. “I’m very happy for our girls. Winning the conference is a great accomplishment.
“Both times we played them were similar games,” he added. “Close throughout and we came up big in the second half. We didn’t have a great shooting night, but our defense more than made up for it. We threw a few different things at them and everything seemed to work.”
Junior Reese Long was instrumental on the defensive end and contained Perfetto for a second time in a month. Perfetto, who had 8 points in South Side’s 48-45 win Jan. 14 on Long’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer, entered the rematch averaging 19.4 ppg to rank fourth in the county. She had two points in the first quarter and three in the fourth. Brigid Loughlin, who didn’t score in the first meeting, led Manhasset with 14 before fouling out late.
“Perfetto is a terrific player and Reese did a fantastic defensive job,” Ferrick said. “We also held their second-leading scorer [Jream McLeod] to six points.”
A frantic opening quarter saw South Side (13-0 in AA-3, 14-5 overall) score the first seven points of the night but eventually fall behind 13-9. Lennon’s 3-pointer late in the second gave the Cyclones a 22-18 halftime lead.
Manhasset responded to open the second half, getting a pair of baskets from Mariah Rosado, one from McLeod and a trey from Loughlin to take a 27-24 lead.
“We just talked about keeping the defense up and the offense would follow,” said Mullen, who scored eight straight points to give South Side the lead for good at 32-27. Woo (6) and Long combined for 10 of its last 15 points.
“We worked really hard for this and I think we have what it takes to go all the way,” Mullen said.
The Cyclones will be the No. 2 or 3 seed in the Class AA playoffs and host a quarterfinal Feb. 25.
