Sports
Wantagh Girls Basketball Drops Heartbreaker at Home
Lady Warriors fall to New Hyde Park 50-47 Tuesday evening.
The girls basketball team dropped a heartbreaker at home to New Hyde Park 50-47.
After trailing in the first half 31-27, New Hyde Park utilized an 11-2 run in the third quarter to help fuel the comeback victory in the Conference A-1 matchup.
Heroes: New Hyde Park Senior Ciara McCullagh dominated the paint from the opening whistle and poured in a game-high 26 points. McCullagh altered shots, rebounded and most importantly, got to the charity stripe 15 times as Wantagh had no answer for the dominant center. She scored 13 points in each half to lead the way over Wantagh.
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Wantagh forward Paula Schmidt and guard April Iannetta the offensive surge for the Warriors with both registering 19 points apiece. Schmidt’s defense forced several key turnovers while her playmaking ability kept Wantagh in the game after a stumbling out of the gate in the second half.
Turning point: Trailing 31-27 at half, New Hyde Park had a huge third quarter by outscoring Wantagh, 11-2. New Hyde Park was able to force turnovers and get to the free throw line by feeding the ball into McCullagh and forcing fouls.
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Quotable: “You can’t teach size,” said New Hyde Park Head Coach Hugh Flaherty of his star player, Ciara McCullagh. Flaherty added that the team did a much better job of controlling the game while pointing towards the decrease in turnovers as a key to the victory over Wantagh.
“We missed some shots in the third quarter,” said Wantagh Head Coach Stan Bujacich. “It’s tough to win a game when you only score two points in the quarter. Our focus is now on our next game Thursday and going into the playoffs.”
Key stats: Free throws. New Hyde Park got to the line 25 times while converting 14 of those attempts. Ciara McCullagh alone had more free throws made (10) than Wantagh had attempted (9).
Who’s next? Wantagh is next in action at home against Division tomorrow starting at 6:30 p.m.
Team ...................... 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... F
New Hyde Park .....13 .. 14 .. 11 .. 12 ..50
Wantagh ............... 10 .. 21 .. 2 .. 14 .. 47
