Bayside High School Girls Basketball Dismantles Campus Magnet, 63-12

The Bayside High School girls' varsity basketball team showed little signs of rust after over a week layoff, as it easily dispatched Campus Magnet, 63-12, at home Friday night, running its Queens A East record to 2-0 on the young season.

The Lady Commodores' defense applied its trademark press, helping them build a 9-0 lead in the first quarter.

Campus Magnet, taking advantage of the opposition's poor shooting performance, fought back into the game, outscoring Bayside 11-7 in the second period that narrowed the gap to 16-11 at the end of the first half.

"Our offense was Jeckle and Hyde ," head coach Stephen Piorkowski said of the differnce between Bayside's first and second half offensive efforts. "The shots weren't falling; I came in at halftime, I just basically said to them the only reason this team's in the game, 16-11, at halftime is due to the fact that we missed so many shots."

However, Piorkowski was able to get his girls to trust their abilities, telling them, "When the opportunity is there, have confidence in your shot, take the shot, and they'll fall."

Their coach's pep talk worked, as the Lady Commodores posted a 24-0 third quarter, taking a commanding 50-11 lead over Campus Magnet.

In fact, Bayside's overall performance was so over-the-top dominating that the Lady-Bulldogs didn't register their first point of the second half until 2:12 left in the fourth quarter.

It would be the only point Bayside would surrender in the second half, as precision shooting, coupled with a stellar defensive press, helped it outscore Campus Magnet 47-1 in the final half of the contest.

Senior Joey Chan tallied a game-high 22 points, while elusive point guard Cheska Mauban and junior Ashley Mitchell chipped in with 16 and 14, respectively, for the Lady Commodores.

Though Bayside's offensive hasn't played up to its full potential yet, Piorkowski noted, its defense and rebounding have been major reasons why no team has scored more than 13 points against it thus far.

"Defense is always going to keep you in the game if the shots aren't falling," the veteran coach explained. "The hardest part of the game is teaching defense and rebounding, and we're doing a nice job. So, we're off to go start there, and we can't slack off. We got to continue to do what we're doing on that, and we'll work on offense."

But he believes the Lady Commodores' offense has the ability to light up the scoreboard.

"Sixty-three points in a girls basketball game with only 16 at halftime is nothing to sneeze at," he said. "The potential is there."

Bayside travels to Thomas Edison High School Tuesday at 5.00 p.m.