Lady Mules Show Their Age in Loss to Wheatley Wildcats

The Lady Mules varsity basketball squad (0-1) suffered a disappointing 54-30 loss Friday night to the Wheatley Wildcats in their season opener. 

The players never quit and put up an aggressive defense, but their offense was riddled with mistakes that could be attributed to their lack of experience. The relatively young squad is comprised mostly of underclassmen, including two eighth graders, and its only two returning starters are sophomores. The Mules frequently struggled to control the ball while dribbling and made far too many messy, overhead passes, which the Wildcats capitalized on, driving to the net for multiple breakaway baskets.

What they lacked in skills and experience, the Lady Mules tried to make up for with their hustle and heart. They fought for rebounds, applied pressure to the Wildcats while on defense and continued to race up and down the court throughout the entire game. They paid the price for some of their aggressive plays, taking many fouls including a technical by eighth grader Alexis Lopez, who shoved one of the Wheatley players.

The Wildcats went out to an early 18-9 lead in the first quarter, but the Mules stepped up their game in the second quarter, allowing Wheatley to score only 9 extra points and put up additional 9 themselves. Still, the Mules started the second half of the game trailing the Wildcats 27-18 and were unable to get on the board again until the final minute in the third quarter. Meanwhile, the Wildcats went on a scoring frenzy, adding 19 points while the Mules remained scoreless. With the third quarter drawing to a close, Richelle Cardoza finally put Malverne back on the board, with a beautiful 2-point shot from the outside of the key that she followed up with a layup on the next drive to bring the score to 24-36 heading into the final quarter.

The Mules turned up the pressure in the fourth quarter with great defensive plays including a steal by Cardoza and a team effort to shut down the Wildcats' scoring opportunities and forcing a shot clock violation by Wheatley to gain possession of the ball.

Junior Amanda Masson was persistent under the net grabbing rebounds and going up for a shot, one of which drew a foul. She sunk one of her free throws to score the first point in the fourth quarter for the Mules and Lopez, who led the team with 10 points for the night, sunk a great outside shot to take the score to 54-27 with two minutes of play remaining. Exceptional rebounding by Jaelyn Chinchilla and a 3-point shot from Lopez in the final 25 seconds of the game put a slight dent in Wheatley's lead but it wasn't enough. The game concluded with the Wildcats taking the 'W.'

Coach's Corner: "This is exactly what you would expect from a young team, " Mules Head Coach Micheal Pelan said. "There were lots of turn overs and mistakes and it didn't help that both of our starting point guard [eighth grader Stephanie Gee] was hurt."

Looking at the postives, Pelan said his players "showed a lot of hustle," and added, "We didn't give up at the end."

Box Score: 

Stats: Alexis Lopez led the team with 10 points for the game, followed by co-captain Amanda Masson, who had 5.

Who's Next? The Lady Mules play away again, taking on Cold Spring Harbor on Dec. 21 at 6:30p.m. in a league game.