NHP Girls Basketball Lose to Sacred Heart, 51-34

The  opened its season by learning that it still has some things to work on with a 51-34 loss to Catholic League power Sacred Heart Academy in its season opener on Monday. The bright spot in the game for  came when the team was within six points of Sacred Heart two minutes into the third quarter. But scores that close wouldn't happen again throughout the rest of the game.

Heroes: Sophomore Gabriella Tomasini scored the basket that brought the team within six points of Sacred Heart in the third quarter, making the score 26-20. Tomasini scored seven points in the game.

Senior Ciara McCullagh was a reliable rebounder and effectively moved the ball around within and outside of the paint. She also helped get a number of jump balls. McCullagh scored four points in the first half of the game and in the second half she scored another five points. Those five points came from foul shots.

Junior Victoria Lofaro sunk a three-point shot with 20 seconds left in the game. She livened up the spirits of her teammates right before their loss was cinched, making her a hero.

Turning point: The game started with the two teams having close scores, but Sacred Heart steadily made shot after shot in the first and second quarters. The widest lead in the first half was 22-7. That changed around the three minute mark of the second quarter when Senior Maria Katsoulis and McCullagh made two back-to-back baskets. The first half ended with NHP trailing 24-17.

Quotable: "We've gotta learn to pass better and we've gotta set better screens," NHP coach Hugh Flaherty said after the game.

Bottom Line: Flaherty said the team needs to work on controlling the ball better. "We threw the ball away a lot," he said, adding, "If I had to guess, I would say we had between 25 and 30 turnovers." Flaherty mentioned before the start of the season that we wanted to work on

Key Stat: Missed shots. These missed shots ranged from foul shots to layups to three pointers. There were at least 15 missed shots not included times that a New Hyde Park girl was fouled or her shot was otherwise blocked by a Sacred Heart player.

Who's Next: New Hyde Park @ South Side, Tuesday.