Mepham Girls Grab First Conference AA-I Win

Talk to Jim Mulvey for a few minutes and the phrase, "No good deed goes unpunished" may come to mind.

Last year was his sixth season heading Mepham's girls basketball squad. The team went 19-1, and won its first conference title under his stewardship before losing to Syosset by four points in the county championship game.

Success in Long Island high schools sports comes with a caveat, though. Thanks to "ability grouping," a team with Mepham's record can be moved into a higher conference, even if that means consistently playing schools with a larger enrollment to extract talent from. Last year's AA-II champs are now AA-I.

Call Mulvey old-school, but he'd like to see ability grouping go the way of pet rocks and eight-tracks, with enrollment being the sole determining factor.
While the coach is hopeful the rule gets another looking over in the spring, in the interim he can deal with tougher competition.

He just can't do it without his Conference Player of the Year.

But there was senior guard Alex Leung, writhing in pain on the court less than four minutes into Tuesday's game with MacArthur after taking a tumble on a drive through the lane. When help arrived, Leung uttered that phrase athletic trainers hate to hear.

"Something popped in my knee."

Everyone held their breath, hoping for the best. Thankfully, the left knee injury was just a contusion, and Leung came back to hit five of six free throw attempts in the final minute of a 42-34 conference win, the Lady Pirates' first of the season.

"She couldn't move the way she wanted," Mulvey said of Leung, who finished with 10 points after scoring 31 in Mepham's last game, a 59-57 loss at Uniondale. And while the coach's long-term assessment of her health was good, she was getting treatment on both knees after the game.

Mepham (4-4, 1-2) led 23-14 at half, thanks to a barrage of scoring from the right wing by Lauren Johnson and a 3-pointer from the top of the key by Leung with two seconds left before the break. But as the game grew tighter in the second half with Leung limited, the team looked unsure who to go to. Thankfully, Nicole Castaldo's offensive rebound and layup with 1:30 left gave Mepham a 33-29 lead, followed by Leung's free throws.

Mulvey was proud of his team's help defense and how they're dealing with adversity in general. But he's also starting a pair of freshman in Castaldo and Samantha Hishmeh and is still waiting to see how the entire team will react in pressure situations.

"They had a little bit of that deer-in-the-headlights look in the second half," Mulvey said. "You can't just be waiting for the person who scored 30 [to do it again]."

MacArthur: 8  6 13 7  - 34

Mepham:  10 13 7 12 - 42

MacArthur: Candice Noakes 9, Nicole Crew 9, Liz Alagna 6, Chrissy Page 4, Vanessa Wycoff 4, Jaci Rini 2.

Mepham: Lauren Johnson 12, Kristen O'Brien 12, Alex Leung 10, Nicole Castaldo 8.