South Side's goal is playoff success

South Side’s girls’ basketball team appeared to be at a crossroads entering the 2017-18 season after losing one of the top players in Nassau County to graduation in Jourdin Thomas. But even though the offensive production, as expected, is down, a commitment to defense and a more balanced scoring attack has kept the Lady Cyclones among the best in the county.

The Lady Cyclones, who are coming off consecutive 16-4 seasons, are again vying for first place in Conference A1 with a 12-3 record, including a 45-36 victory over Garden City last Friday that pushed its league mark to 7-1 with four games remaining.

Even the transition period that came following Thomas’ departure went smoother than expected as South Side won its first five games of the season and six of the first seven. Third-year head coach Dan Ferrick credited tri-captains Gianna Mauro, Jenna Lopez and Kelsey Barrett for helping the team stay the course.

“They have done an exceptional job of bringing the girls together,” Ferrick said. “They know the expectations. I tell them [that] this is their team. They have done a great job of getting the girls who came up from JV up to speed with everything else.”

The offense may not be as intimidating on paper – leading scorer Mauro is averaging just 9.8 points per game while the team is averaging just over 50 – but a 13-deep roster that is utilized and can pitch in offensively and a defense that is yielding just over 39 points a game has kept them near the top of the Conference A-1.

“It’s just the fact that you challenge the girls more in practice,” Ferrick said. “We’ve almost played exclusively man-to-man. We do have two zones that we can play that we will show for different teams, but the girls are moving their feet very well.”

South Side slipped temporarily against conference powerhouse Elmont on Jan. 12. In what Ferrick called a barometer game earlier this season, the Lady Cyclones trailed the Lady Spartans by just three points at halftime while holding them to 18 points in the opening half, but were outscored 26-8 in the third quarter before eventually falling 55-30.

“Against Elmont, we had 29 turnovers,” Ferrick said. “The first 10 possessions [of the third quarter], we turned the ball over nine times. You go down from three to 23 in two seconds. Every possession is important.”

Lopez and sophomore Katie McMahon are both averaging 8.9 points a game and the team has also gotten production from 6-foot freshman Sydney Rathjen, who is averaging 7.1 points as the sixth man while providing strong defense and shot blocking abilities. 

South Side is also hoping to finally get past the first round of the playoffs, which it has failed to do in each of the last three campaigns. 

“Defense is what’s going to win you a playoff game, and that’s what our goal is with this group,” Ferrick said. “These girls have never won a playoff game, so that’s what the focus is.”