South Side eyes playoff run

Most teams would happily accept being 10-4 with five conference wins heading into the final weeks of the season. But South Side girls’ basketball head coach Dan Ferrick isn’t completely satisfied.

With less than a month to go, the Cyclones’ bench boss is still tinkering with his rotation in hopes of finding the right combination that will take his team deep into the playoffs. South Side, which is two wins shy of last year’s total, finds itself again in the mix for a conference title despite moving up a division.

“As much as you sit there and say 10-4, great record and everything else, I think this team is a lot better than it’s showing so far,” he said. “Sometimes, we have a slow start, we go through some lulls, but I think we’re fine. It’s a young team. I have to keep reminding myself of that.”

South Side was riding high with three straight conference victories and had a one-point lead after the first quarter of its big matchup with division-leading Garden City last Friday night, but the Trojans caught up and slowly pulled away over the last three stanzas for a 46-38 victory. Kyla Murphy had 12 points and Dakota Evans added 9 for the Cyclones, who sit a game behind Garden City in the Conference A2 standings at press time.

“It came down to the fact that we weren’t shooting well,” Ferrick said. “Their starting five is very good and we just didn’t shoot well from the second quarter on.”

The versatile Murphy is averaging just over 14 points a game and has been instrumental in many of the wins. She had a season-high 24 points against Oceanside on Dec. 6 and scored 17 of her 20 points in the second half as the Cyclones rallied for a 59-38 win at Roslyn in the conference opener on Dec. 14.

But she has also been the poster child for Ferrick’s lineup adjustments this season.

“Kyla’s having a good year,” Ferrick said. “She plays multiple positions and right now we’re still trying to figure out what’s the best position for her. She starts at the ‘3’, [but] she should probably be more of a ‘4’ because she has post moves and everything else. She’s one of the hardest workers on the team.”

Sophomore Charlotte Rathjen (9.1 ppg) and Evans (8.7) have supplied secondary scoring and senior center Ava Kelly had a 10-point game that contributed to a 52-45 win over a talented Plainedge team on Dec. 4. 

Unlike last winter, South Side has remained generally healthy this season, with only junior point guard Katherine Ahern getting hit with the injury bug. Freshman Elle Lennon was called up from the JV and had 14 points in a win over Elmont on Jan. 10.

South Side faces all six conference foes again over the next four weeks and the division title could be decided in its final two games against third-place Elmont on Feb. 7 before the much-anticipated rematch at Garden City three days later.