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SACHEM EAST HOLDS OFF NORTH BABYLON |
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Dec. 22nd - Saturday: Sachem East 11 - 27 - 45 - 61, North Babylon 11 - 23 - 38 - 54. Like a lot of other basketball fans, I headed over to North Babylon for what was expected to be a marquee match-up between two of Suffolk County's top teams. Sachem East was missing one of their starters, Ashley Gyseck, while Eugeneia McPherson sat out with an eye injury for North Babylon. Sachem East jumped out early and would never relinquish the lead. North Babylon would hang around most of the game, eventually getting to within three late in the game. The first quarter saw two of the top sophomores (North Babylon's Bria Hartley and Sachem East's Kristen Doherty) on Long Island struggle, while their teammates picked up the slack at the offensive end. Contributing to that struggle was not only the fact that both were covering each other but their teammates were always aware of each player with or without the ball. The first quarter ended with Sachem East up 11 - 9. Sachem East could have taken a larger lead as they held North Babylon scoreless for almost 4 minutes, but they missed a number of opportunities to capitalize on. In the second quarter, both Hartley (scored 7 points) and Doherty (started to attack the basket, hitting 5 of 6 free throws) were starting to get cranked up, as they were more involved in their teams offenses. Megan Doherty hit two big 3 to keep North Babylon 6 - 7 points behind. In the third quarter, North Babaylon would get as close as 6 poins, that deficit would grow to as much as 10 points. While Sachem East was getting balanced scoring and answering right back everytime North Babylon threatened, North Babylon's offense had become stagnant and was going primairly through Hartley. Hartley scored 11 points, two of which came at the buzzer to pull North Babylon to within 7. North Babylon would get balanced scoring in the fourth quarter, but could only get to within three 51 - 48 with 3:24 remaining. Doherty answered back with a big three. Sachem East was able to build upon their lead by getting to the free throw line and hitting 8 of 10 free thorws while North Babylon went 1 for 3. Doherty scored 11 points in the quarter, with 6 coming at the free thorw line. Sachem East has a solid starting five with Doherty, Nicole and Ashley Caggiano at the guard positions along with Stefanie Mignone and Kaitlyn Hopkins inside. They have got to do a better job of getting the bigs more involved in their offense - not only to keep other teams defenses honest but they are both pretty good passers. Megan Doherty gave them valuable minutes today - hitting a couple of big shots. North Babylon proved they can hang with a tough opponent even while missing one of the better players in New York State. No excuses are to used though but one can only wonder what the outomce might have been had Mcpherins played. Now we will have to wait for the rematch in the playoffs. Bria Hartley answered a lot of questions as she illustrated that she is very capable of playing with and against the best players even without McPherson. North Babylon played well today, they just couldn't turn Sachem's guards over like they would have liked to. They got some good minutes from Katrina Plummer and Kelly Whitaker (returning from acl injury). They are going to need need Bryant and Fisher to step up their games especially on the defensive end. There was a good size crowd with players and coaches from other teams in the stands - some of which played earlier on the day.
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