South Side struggled against Lynbrook on Friday night after losing senior captain Lauren Lopresti — she collapsed from dehydration and a virus after the first quarter — and the Lady Owls seized the opportunity with a shocking 50-40 win over the previously undefeated Lady Cyclones.
Thankfully Lopresti is OK, but the Lady Cyclones (9-1) were outscored 42-32 after her departure and struggled mightily on defense without their leader. Lynbrook (7-2) took advantage of South Side's loss, and Jen Fay dropped 15 points, Brooke Gertsman added nine points, and Danielle Amaya chipped in with 12.
The Lady Owls capitalized, getting an offensive boost from Amaya, who only scored two points in the team's first meeting. Lynbrook also moved Fay from the three-guard to forward to try and offset some of the Lady Cyclones' tremendous size inside.
“Danni stepped up both defensively and offensively, she was the third scorer that we needed in the first game,” Lynbrook coach Heather Manikas said. “With her and Fay doing a good job switching to forward, we wanted to use her size and rebounding inside.”
South Side coach Katie Dunn said her team wasn’t the same after Lopresti was carried off on a stretcher in the intermission between the first and second quarters.
“It was definitely tough, Lauren is our hardest worker and our toughest kid, if she doesn’t get up, you know something is wrong,” she said. “She never lost consciousness, we just wanted to make sure her eyes were open, she was breathing, and we did the right thing.”
Without Lopresti, the Lady Cyclones leaned heavily on senior stars Megan Lonergan and Christina Merrifield, who valiantly tried to stage a comeback from a 32-23 fourth-quarter deficit. Both scored 13 points on the night, with Lonergan dropping six in the fourth quarter and Merrifield chipping in eight of her own in the final eight minutes.
South Side trimmed the lead to four with 3:46 left after Caitlin Wallace hit a layup to bring the Lady Cyclones within four at 38-34, but Lynbrook converted five of its next seven free throws to seal the win.
“We haven’t faced adversity since the last time we played them, so overall this is probably going to aid us,” Dunn said. “We looked a little scared, we played outside our comfort zone without Lauren. She’s our best defender, losing her is like losing two kids.”
With the win, Lynbrook improved to 7-2 in Conference A-II. The Lady Owls travel to Bethpage on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
South Side fell to 9-1, but can still clinch the No. 1 seed in the playoffs with a win in one of its final two games: Tuesday at Lawrence or Friday at home against Sewanhaka.
