South Side Routs Hewlett, 44-15

If South Side continues to get this much production out of its bench, the Lady Cyclones will be incredibly tough to beat when the conference playoffs start in two weeks.

The Lady Cyclones (9-0) played its starters sparingly, but got good production from its bench in an easy 44-15 win against Hewlett on Wednesday night at home in their final tune-up before a showdown with rival Lynbrook on Friday.

With its starters playing just a few minutes at the beginning of each half, South Side overwhelmed the Lady Bulldogs (0-9) with sheer size and skill. Lady Cyclones coach Katelyn Dunn said she was impressed by how her team played on the defensive end.

“I’m really happy with the way we played defensively,” she said. “We were just great defensively, we boxed out well all game and we were moving around well with and without the ball.”

Hewlett coach Tommy Johnson said he knew going in that his energetic team couldn't get by on pure hustle, but was pleased to hold South Side to just about 40 points.

“They are so much more capable than us, they are just in a different stage than us defensively in terms of development,” he said. “We wanted to keep them around 40 points, because no one scores more than 40 against them. We haven’t seen a team with their kind of defense. Their size and balance are the worst nightmare for us.”

South Side starter Christina Merrifield still managed to score 14 points and grab six boards. Lauren Lopresti and Bridget Kiernan each grabbed nine boards and combined for 10 points.  The real revelation of the night was Juliana Pelligrini, who played her first game after being brought up to varsity from JV.

“Our bench did a great job switching D, they did great,” Dunn said. “The kid JP had a good game, she gave us a nice boost, she’s real athletic. We tried an athletic lineup with the bench and it worked.”

With just three games remaining in the regular season, the Lady Cyclones need to win only one of its remaining three games to win the conference and earn the No. 1 seed in the playoffs.

Dunn said she wants to clinch that spot in their next game against Lynbrook (7-2), but knows it will not be easy.

“We need to continue to play solid defense, and control [Jen] Fay and [Brooke] Gerstman, that will be the key,” she said. “We’re expecting a playoff-type atmosphere, but we’d like to clinch it in the next one.”