PLAYOFFS: Garden City Sends South Side Home in Semis, 31-28

With 16.9 seconds left in the Class A semifinal matchup on Tuesday night, it appeared as if No. 3 South Side had lost all hope when Brianna McNally fouled Garden City’s Katie Trimmer, giving the No. 2 Trojans the ball on its own sideline with a 30-28 lead.

The momentum, however, shifted when McNally tightly defended Garden City's inbounds pass from Jess Stein to Trojans' star Barbara Sullivan. Stein overthrew Sullivan and the ball sailed out of bounds, giving South Side one last possession to tie or win the game.

“Our whole idea was to deny Sullivan the ball and go for a steal," South Side head coach Katie Dunn said. "Lauren did a great job denying the ball and Brianna did well to defend the inbound pass. We had the ball in the best place that it could be, under the circumstances.”

On the ensuing inbounds play for the Lady Cyclones, South Side pounded the ball inside to forward Megan Lonergan — who's made countless big shots all season — but the Trojans defense collapsed in the paint, forcing her to the outside. Lonergan then dished to Lauren Lopresti for one last shot with ten seconds left. 

Lopresti took the cross-court pass, dribbled once and fired an 18-foot jumper. It clanged off the front rim, and Trimmer snatched the rebound. South Side fouled her, and Trimmer hit one of two free throws to seal a 31-28 win and secure its place in the Class A finals against No. 1 seed Division on Saturday.

Trojans coach Anthony Sparacia said he knew his team won an ugly game — both teams combined for 44 turnovers —  but his squad lives to fight another day and play for a county championship.

“Both teams played some very tight defense, and it led to some sloppy basketball tonight,” he said. “There was some great defense, and they are a very good team and Katie had them prepared. But we’re just glad we’ll get to play on Saturday [against Division].”

Garden City got off to a quick start, scoring the game’s first seven points before the Lady Cyclones settled down and got its nerves under control. Garden City ended the half up 21-15, and South Side struggled to get a double-teamed Lonergan the ball in the post.

“They were really prepared for Megan," Dunn said. "They sent two girls at her whenever they could.  She’s our best player, and she’s smart and unselfish. We just didn’t do a good job of getting her good looks."

Sparacia game planned well for South Side’s leading scorer, and was one of few coaches with the size to counter the Lady Cyclones' forwards.

“We have decent size ourselves and great athletes. [Christina Mangels] might be the best athlete I’ve ever coached,” he said. “We had a lot of good ball pressure, and there were no looks for her and that’s what we wanted to do.”

Lonergan finished with seven points and six rebounds, but Garden City’s Sullivan scored a game-high 14 points and at times looked unstoppable. “Barbara can get to the basket whenever she wants, but we were ready for her,” Dunn said. “We tried bumping her inside and making her at least work for it.”

Sparacia said he knows his team will be prepared to face the Blue Dragons on Saturday with a county championship on the line.

“We’ve seen them twice already this season, and we beat them by 23 and I believe we lost by two the second time,” he said. “We know what we have to do, now we just have to get it done.”