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Light Rain South Side holds off Elmont
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South Side's Christina Merrifield drives against Elmont's Jasmine Cobbs during the first half of the Lady Cyclones' Conference ABC-I home victory on Jan. 21.
Claudio Papapietro/Herald
Senior Colleen Burke scored 22 points and dished out six assists to lead South Side to a 56-45 victory over visiting Elmont in a Conference ABC-I girls’ basketball game on Jan. 22. Senior Jasmine Cobbs scored a game-high 25 points to lead the Lady Spartans.
South Side got off to a tremendous start, scoring 12 consecutive points to take a quick 10-point lead five minutes into the game. Megan Lonergan scored six her 14 points during this span. The junior center added 11 rebounds. Any thoughts of Elmont packing it in went away quickly. The Lady Spartans ran off the next 13 points to take the lead. South Side went six minutes without scoring.
South Side coach Kendall Richards was concerned about how his team handled Elmont’s pressure. “Elmont likes to play at a frenetic pace,” Richards said. “The guards need to relax, and not panic. We’re fine if we play at our pace. You can’t let their defense dictate how we play.”
The third quarter was back-and-forth. A few beautiful feeds from Lonergan led to easy baskets for South Side, as the hosts extended their lead to 38-29 with 1:34 to go in the quarter. Elmont came back to score the next seven points to get within a bucket at 38-36. Both Lonergan and Cobbs had three fouls as the teams took the floor for the final quarter.
Richards got what he was looking for in the final eight minutes as the unflappable Burke took control of the game. Burke scored 10 points, had three assists and controlled the offense, as the Lady Cyclones started the fourth on a 13-1 run. Theresa Jones and Cobbs hit back-to-back threes to give the Lady Spartans some life, but South Side hit its free throws down the stretch to put the game away.
Merrifield, who often flies under the radar, had an outstanding game. The junior forward scored 14 points, pulled down 10 rebounds, and had four assists for South Side (5-4 in Conference ABC-I, 9-5 overall).
Elmont coach Tom Magno liked the effort, but knows he needs more scoring. “We just didn’t have anyone step up on the offensive end outside of Cobbs,” Magno said. “We missed a few from in close, and gave up too many easy baskets when we didn’t get back on defense.”
The Lady Spartans, who fell to 4-9 overall, travel to New Hyde Park on Friday for a 4:30 p.m. tip-off. South Side is home to Lynbrook on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
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