East Meadow defeats Mepham

The Nassau County basketball playoffs are still about a month away, but the East Meadow girls will assuredly be there and their chances of making a serious run has increased enormously with Baldwin no longer in the same classification.
The Jets returned all of their major contributors from last season’s 16-win squad, led by All-County junior guard Allie Twible and All-Conference senior wings Brooke Vislocky and Charlotte Viola.
“We practice hard and have so many components,” Twible said after pouring in a game-high 27 points and pulling down 10 rebounds last Saturday as East Meadow handed Mepham its first Conference AA-1 defeat, 57-48. “We have great chemistry and a lot of confidence,” she added. “We have attainable goals and we feel we can contend for a championship.”
Viola added 14 points and senior Keziah Phillip had 13 boards as the Jets improved to 7-4 overall and won their fourth conference game in five tries. The Pirates (6-5 overall, 4-1 in AA-1), playing for just the second time all season with head coach Jim Mulvey’s desired lineup, got 16 points and 14 rebounds from junior Makayla Daube, and a combined 17 points from senior Brianna Frier (9) and junior Grace Skulavik.
“This is a huge win,” East Meadow head coach Peter Olenik said. “We’re playing a whole new group of opponents and we’ve never been in this gym before. It’s a tough place to play and we were able to come out strong and set the tone.”

Twible hit a three-pointer on the Jets’ first trip downcourt and forced Mepham to chase the scoreboard throughout the afternoon. The Jets led 16-10 after the first quarter and responded each of the four times thereafter the Pirates made it a one-possession game.
“This is only the second game we’ve had everyone healthy and I think we can start building moving forward,” Mulvey said. “We played well in spurts today. We didn’t get back on defense quick enough at times and we need to do a better job anticipating what teams are trying to do against us.”
Viola had 11 first-half points and Twible added 10 as East Meadow held a 30-24 lead at the break. The Jets went 9-for-10 from the line in the opening half and finished 21 of 26 (81 percent) as Twible went 9 of 10 in the final three minutes alone.
Skulavik scored all of her points in the second quarter to keep the Pirates within striking distance and answered some hot outside shooting off the bench from East Meadow freshman Angelina Cronin.
A Daube free throw and a putback by junior Sophia Beck brought Mepham within 32-29 early in the third quarter before the Jets scored eight straight to regain command.
East Meadow hosts the rematch Feb. 2 but will first try to avenge their only conference defeat to first-place MacArthur Jan. 27 at noon.
“We have a lot of pieces and our three captains, Allie, Brooke and Charlotte, do an excellent job of keeping everyone on the same page.” Olenik said. “The girls know effort is non-negotiable and they come ready to work every day.”