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Light Rain Free throws lift Lady Pirates
Mepham outlasts MacArthur
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Mepham's Lauren Johnson releases a shot over MacArthur's Nicole Crew during the Lady Pirates' 42-34 Conference AA-I win.
Jeff Wilson/Herald
Despite hitting just two shots from the field in the second half, Mepham managed to hold off visiting MacArthur in a Conference AA-I girls’ basketball game, 42-34, on Dec. 29.
The Lady Pirates scored 14 of their 19 second-half points from the free-throw line, missing just two attempts, en route to improving to 1-2 in conference play and 4-3 overall. Senior Lauren Johnson and sophomore Kristen O’Brien scored 12 points apiece to lead an offense with much work to do.
“We didn’t want to be 0-3 in the conference,” Mepham coach Jim Mulvey said. “Bottom line is we needed this one. I wasn’t happy about how we looked on offense in the second half. We got ourselves in trouble by standing around waiting for Alex [Leung] to take over.
“Fortunately they didn’t have a good day shooting and we rebounded pretty well.”
Leung, a senior who scored 31 points in a 59-57 conference loss at Uniondale a week earlier, went down midway through the first quarter with a knee injury but returned after spending a few minutes with the trainer. She finished with 10 points. She struggled from behind the arc and gave up a great deal of height to counterpart Candice Noakes, who had a strong defensive game and scored nine points to co-lead the Lady Generals along with Nicole Crew.
“I think Alex’s knee will be fine but she definitely wasn’t 100 percent after she hurt it,” Mulvey said. “It bothered her for the rest of the game, but Lauren and Kristen stepped up.”
Johnson, who has battled through her own injury concerns, scored 10 of her points in a first half that saw Mepham build a 23-14 advantage. She scored from inside the paint, from the baseline and also hit a driving left-handed shot off the glass. She was saddled with foul trouble in the second half and watched the final 1:15 from the bench after picking up her fifth personal.
A three-pointer by O’Brien in the opening minute of the second half brought the first double-digit lead of the game at 26-15, but MacArthur clawed back. Liz Alargia scored her only six points of the game on consecutive possessions, with a traditional three-point play as well as a long-distance shot, and Vanessa Wycoff provided a spark off the bench with four points and Mepham’s lead was trimmed to 30-27 after three quarters.
The fourth was a rebounding clinic. Neither team could buy a shot and MacArthur blew several chances to take the lead. Freshman Nicole Castaldo (eight points, 12 rebounds) hit Mepham’s lone field goal of the quarter with 1:30 left to give it a 33-29 lead. Over the final 55 seconds, Leung went 5-for-6 from the line to salvage an otherwise tough afternoon.
The Lady Pirates are back home Tuesday to face Farmingdale at 4:30 p.m. and take on Massapequa on Jan. 16 at noon.
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