Lack of effort dooms TMLA in ugly loss to St. Peter’s
By Five Boro Sports
Comment
 |
OYSTER BAY, L.I. — Friday the 13th was a horror show for The Mary Louis Academy.
The Hilltoppers were outworked, outplayed and outclassed by St. Peter’s in a 67-37 loss in the opening round of the CHSAA Class AA girls’ basketball state tournament Friday night at St. Dominic High School.
“They played basketball like they wanted to win the game. We played like we had to be here,” Hilltoppers Coach Kevin White said.”
Mary Louis (18-9) trailed 12-0 after back-to-back three-pointers from Catherine Lewis, who had 17 points and four three-pointers, to cap the Eagles’ spurt. TMLA’s first points came on Karin Robinson’s potential three-point play with 3:08 left in the first, but she missed the free throw.
“When the lead started getting bigger, a lot of us put our heads down, which we shouldn’t have — me, too,” senior guard Amanda Burakoski said. “First thing I did was put my head down. … I knew it was that much more effort we had to put into it.”
White eventually switched from zone to man-to-man to try to combat St. Peter’s outside shooting and get his team’s energy level up. The Eagles (22-3) then dumped it inside and sophomore point guard Christine Kline did a superb job of finding the open man. St. Peter’s ripped off an 11-0 run to take a 29-9 lead on a Jamie O’Hare basket with 4:29 left before the half. TMLA trailed 37-15 at the break.
“It was kind of frustrating because at one point we didn’t know what to do,” Robinson said. The confusion was with their assignments in the man-to-man defense. Any time a St. Peter’s player seemed to get free, the Eagles found them.
“People were lost,” White said. “They didn’t know who they were covering. … We looked like we hadn’t played basketball before today.”
Mary Louis did try to get back into the game, going on a 13-2 run to start the third quarter. It was finished off by back-to-back jumpers from junior Jackie Kresse and a putback by Robinson to cut the lead to 41-28 with 2:25 left in the third. Victoria Jones (12 points) then scored seven straight points for the Eagles, putting any comeback hope to rest.
“When we made the run in the third quarter I thought we were going to bring the lead down a little bit more, hopefully be able to work from there in the fourth quarter, but that didn’t happen,” Burakoski said.
The St. John’s-bound guard was again a non-factor, scoring just three points — on a third-quarter jumper that had to bounce a few times before it fell — in her final high-school game. St. Peter’s, which made eight three-pointers, played a match-up zone with a focus on her and the Eagles’ length inside made drives tough. Robinson again led the way with 14 points and Camille Romero had six.
“Buzz has to step to the forefront and act like a Big East player in games like this,” White said. “You’re in a state championship game. You know you are the best player on our team, on the court and people are going to be after you. You have to have the aggressive, attack mentality as opposed to deferring to other people.”
Even so, consensus was still that St. Peter’s effort was simply better, in every aspect.
“They just came to play,” Robinson said. “They really wanted to play [Saturday]. That’s what happened. … If we would have come harder it would have been more of a challenge and we would have been still in the game. We would have been playing [Saturday].”
The Hilltoppers were outworked, outplayed and outclassed by St. Peter’s in a 67-37 loss in the opening round of the CHSAA Class AA girls’ basketball state tournament Friday night at St. Dominic High School.
“They played basketball like they wanted to win the game. We played like we had to be here,” Hilltoppers Coach Kevin White said.”
Mary Louis (18-9) trailed 12-0 after back-to-back three-pointers from Catherine Lewis, who had 17 points and four three-pointers, to cap the Eagles’ spurt. TMLA’s first points came on Karin Robinson’s potential three-point play with 3:08 left in the first, but she missed the free throw.
“When the lead started getting bigger, a lot of us put our heads down, which we shouldn’t have — me, too,” senior guard Amanda Burakoski said. “First thing I did was put my head down. … I knew it was that much more effort we had to put into it.”
White eventually switched from zone to man-to-man to try to combat St. Peter’s outside shooting and get his team’s energy level up. The Eagles (22-3) then dumped it inside and sophomore point guard Christine Kline did a superb job of finding the open man. St. Peter’s ripped off an 11-0 run to take a 29-9 lead on a Jamie O’Hare basket with 4:29 left before the half. TMLA trailed 37-15 at the break.
“It was kind of frustrating because at one point we didn’t know what to do,” Robinson said. The confusion was with their assignments in the man-to-man defense. Any time a St. Peter’s player seemed to get free, the Eagles found them.
“People were lost,” White said. “They didn’t know who they were covering. … We looked like we hadn’t played basketball before today.”
Mary Louis did try to get back into the game, going on a 13-2 run to start the third quarter. It was finished off by back-to-back jumpers from junior Jackie Kresse and a putback by Robinson to cut the lead to 41-28 with 2:25 left in the third. Victoria Jones (12 points) then scored seven straight points for the Eagles, putting any comeback hope to rest.
“When we made the run in the third quarter I thought we were going to bring the lead down a little bit more, hopefully be able to work from there in the fourth quarter, but that didn’t happen,” Burakoski said.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Buzz has to step to the forefront and act like a Big East player in games like this,” White said. “You’re in a state championship game. You know you are the best player on our team, on the court and people are going to be after you. You have to have the aggressive, attack mentality as opposed to deferring to other people.”
Even so, consensus was still that St. Peter’s effort was simply better, in every aspect.
“They just came to play,” Robinson said. “They really wanted to play [Saturday]. That’s what happened. … If we would have come harder it would have been more of a challenge and we would have been still in the game. We would have been playing [Saturday].”
 |
 |
|
| Yacovone lifts Cross to CHSHL ‘B’ title | Versatile Ebanks big on the boards for West Virginia |
Reader Comments
Submit a Comment
We encourage your feedback and dialog, all comments will be reviewed by our Web staff after appearing on the Web site.
|
