Friday, March 28, 2025
There wasn’t a cloud in the Monday night sky but it was raining 3s inside the South Side High School gymnasium as the Cyclones and visiting Kennedy were both on the mark from beyond the arc in a Nassau Conference AA3 girls’ basketball matchup.
South Side, coming off a rough shooting performance in a loss to first-place Division last Friday, sank eight 3s to the Cougars’ 5 and didn’t allow a point in the third quarter of a 63-28 victory. Junior Ellie Lennon scored a game-high 15 points, sophomore Katelyn Mullin had 13, sophomore Reese Long added 9 and senior Charlotte Rathjen 8 as the Cyclones won their 12th game of the season and improved to 7-3 in AA3.
Senior Jolie Yablon led Kennedy (6-9 overall, 3-6 in AA3) with 8 points and hit the first of its three consecutive treys in the third quarter — junior Jordi Wohlleben and senior Tristan Montalbano followed — as the visitors got within 20-15 before South Side took command.
“It was good to see us bounce back after Division,” South Side head coach Dan Ferrick said. “We shot 13-for-63 in that game and it was so unlike us. Tonight showed we can put a tough one behind us. Now we’re comfortably in the playoffs with seven conference wins and it’s just a matter of seeding.”
Mullin hit four treys on the night and Lennon three shots from long range as the Cyclones all but secured third place in AA3. They have four games remaining—Roslyn, Bethpage, Manhasset and Hewlett — before the playoffs begin in mid-February. This Friday at 7 p.m. is the home regular-season finale against Bethpage where the team will honor Rathjen, Taylor Hansman and Ella Burbige.
“Our hope is to run the table and If I had to guess right now, probably be seeded sixth or seventh,” Ferrick said. “We still have to go to Manhasset and that’s going to be a tough one. Hopefully we play how we did tonight.”
Kennedy has five conference games to go, including three at home, and is on a three-game slide after taking down Hewlett behind senior Ashley St. Surin’s 13 and Bethpage behind Yablon’s 21 and Montalbano’s 18. All are all having solid seasons, head coach Mallory Freely said.
“It’s a really tough conference and we’ve had trouble against teams with a lot of height,” Freely said.
The Cougars scored 9 of the first 11 points of the second quarter before South Side used a 12-3 run to lead by 14 at halftime. The third was all Cyclones, who scored all 20 points of the quarter highlighted by two 3s apiece from Lennon and Mullin.
“We shot the ball well and that was one of the best things about tonight along with how well we defended their better scorers,” Ferrick said.
