Lady Colts Basketball Opens Strong Against Uniondale

Uniondale, who?

"I'm speechless," Calhoun girls basketball coach Dave Radtke said. "I've been waiting for this for two years."

Radtke had just seen his Lady Colts squad run up an 11-point third quarter lead and hang on for a 52-48 win against Uniondale, upending a team which went to the county finals last year and–not incidentally–beat the Colts by a cool 20 points while doing so.

Not this time.

Strong inside play by Calhoun's senior all-county forward Meghan O'Sullivan in the first half, and a one-two punch in the second half–quick hands on defense and hot perimeter shooting from junior all-conference guard Danielle Losee, coupled with strong ball handling from freshman Nora Charidah–gave the Lady Colts a considerably more thrilling start to the 2010-11 season on their home court.

"We really had to pick up our defense against them–it was pretty rough out there, but we kept our composure," said Losee, who had four steals on the afternoon, and showed crispness and hustle in her point guard duties.

She also had an increasingly hot hand from the perimeter. After scoring only two points in the first half, she went on a tear, hitting two three pointers and three more jumpers, plus a couple of points from the foul line, en route to a 17 point afternoon.

"I felt good about my shot today," Losee said.

In fact the Lady Colts showed good team play, with a number of players able to execute against a strong Uniondale squad.

"This is a team that has a number of offensive players," Radtke said. "We just need to play together, and this is the first time we did."

Junior Dana Silvester (seven points) went hard to the basket on a number of occasions, and strong play was turned in by Annmarie White (four points), Jessica Ruggiero (four points), Jessica Parascondola (four points), Ellie Rosenblum and Talia Charidah.

"They were pushing pretty hard inside, but it just made me want to get to the net even harder," said O'Sullivan, who scored nine points early and finished with 15 on the day -- not to mention registering four blocks and eight rebounds.

Charidah, whose ability to bring the ball up court and work the perimeter on offense complemented Losee's hustling play, chipped in five points of her own.

Uniondale was led by senior Myajha Elston (17 points), and 10th grader Artiana Wynder (19).

"It's early in the season and there's a lot of work to do," Uniondale coach Danielle Nicol said. "We're young–starting an eighth grader and a 10th grader. It's going to take a little while and we need to develop our chemistry."

The lead was Calhoun's to lose from the outset. O'Sullivan was potent inside, running off three straight buckets as the Colts got out to a 6-2 lead. And after Uniondale went on a 8-2 run to end the first quarter, the Colts clawed back into it, getting baskets from White and Silvester to knot things at 14-14 with 3:11 to go in the half.

But Losee drove the lane to make it 16-14 Calhoun, and another driving layup for White and a fast break bucket for Silvester put the Colts decisively up at the half 20-16.

The third quarter was an impressive show for the Lady Colts, thrilling Calhoun fans with a 21-14 run over the eight minutes–including Losee's three point fireworks and scoring from five different Calhoun players. At the end of three, it was 41-30 and there was some reason to think that the game was well in hand.

Uniondale, however, was not about to fold. The fourth quarter was a dramatic nip and tuck struggle as the visitors fought to narrow the score to six midway, and–with under a minute to go–work the clock and the foul line to get it down to three.

But with 21.8 ticks left, they fouled the wrong person, O'Sullivan, who coolly went to the line and knocked down the front end of a two-shot penalty to make it a two-possession lead, and seal the victory for Calhoun.

"I was glad to have Meghan on the line at the end for us," coach Radtke said after the game.

Calhoun travels to Oceanside next Friday for another non-league contest as the Lady Colts gear up for the start of league play against Mepham on Dec. 14.