60.0°,
Overcast Lynbrook dominates playoff opener
The future will have to wait.
In a battle between a team on the rise and a team looking to win a county title, the latter reigned supreme. Junior guard Brooke Gerstman scored a game-high 29 points and dished out five assists to lead No. 5 Lynbrook to a 74-35 rout of up-and-coming Glen Cove in the first round of the Nassau Class A girls’ basketball playoffs last Friday.
Junior Danielle Amaya had 17 points and 11 rebounds for Lynbrook. No. 12 Glen Cove was led by eighth-grader Taylah Hudson’s 14 points. The game marked the first postseason appearance for Glen Cove since 1993. The Big Red finished with a record of 8-10.
Lynbrook head coach Heather Manikas was happy with her team’s performance. “Coming into the game, we didn’t know much about Glen Cove other than the fact that they had some very good young players,” Manikas said. “We knew we had a size advantage, so we looked for our big girls to do the job, and they did. The rebounding from Danielle Amaya and Jen Fay was outstanding.”
Fay was unstoppable on the boards. The freshman forward scored 14 points and pulled down a career-high 20 rebounds for the Lady Owls, who ran out to a commanding 42-18 lead at the half. Gerstman had 25 points in the opening half including 19 in the second quarter.
While Gerstman’s brilliance on the floor is widely known, it was the intangibles that impressed Manikas. “Brooke came out today as a leader,” Manikas said. “She was hungry. She had about 10 points in a minute and a half in the second quarter. Aside for the scoring and passing, she knew that she had to be a leader on the floor, and the importance of showing the team how to handle playoff pressure. You can’t take any teams for granted.”
Glen Cove, which has seven underclassmen on its roster, including leading scorer eighth-grade guard McKayla Hernandez, got eight points from junior Nicole Alexander. Junior guard Shannon Baker had eight points for the Lady Owls.
Lynbrook (14-4) advanced to the quarterfinals where it met No. 4 North Shore (16-2) on Tuesday afternoon. The Lady Owls defeated the Lady Vikings, 62-55, when the teams met back in early December.
