Corbin's hard work leads to big results

A year ago, senior guard Keira Corbin provided some spark off the bench for a Baldwin team that won a Nassau Class AA girls’ basketball championship for the first time since 1999 and just the second in school history.

That spark from Corbin developed into quite an explosion on the court during the 2010-11 campaign, culminating in an 11-point, six-rebound, four-steal performance in last Saturday’s 39-37 victory over Farmingdale that propelled the Lady Bruins (19-1) to a second consecutive county crown and a matchup with Deer Park this Friday at Hofstra for the Long Island championship.

“It’s an unbelievable story,” Baldwin coach Tom Catapano said, noting an outstanding offseason that catapulted her into a starting role. “It’s an inspiration to young players that if you work hard, look where it can get you.”

For her playoff heroics, which also included 17 points and seven steals in a semifinal win over MacArthur and an eight-point, five-steal, four-assist outing against Freeport in the quartefinals, Corbin was named the Class AA Playoff Tournament’s Most Valuable Player. The senior also dominated Conference AA-II during the regular season and led the Lady Bruins in scoring (11.6 points per game), steals (4.5), three-pointers (16) and free-throw shooting (79 percent). “She only knows one speed, 110 miles per hour,” Catapano said.

In the championship game win over the Lady Dalers, the senior helped lead Baldwin back from an 11-point first quarter deficit on both ends of the floor. It started on the defensive side, where she picked up Farmingdale’s point guard inside the opposite free throw line on nearly every possession from the second quarter on. She also scored five consecutive points late in the third to push the Lady Bruins past Farmingdale for good.

“She’s tenacious, like a little pit bull,” Catapano said of Corbin. “She’s in charge of guarding every team’s point guard. [Teammates] call her the zig-zag kid, because she picks up the [point guard] 75 feet from the basket and makes her work the whole way up the court.

“It takes teams out of their offense. They can’t run set plays because they are too worried about getting over halfcourt.”