Girls Basketball Wins Playoff Game

The Lady Trojans topped West Hempstead 53-33 in the opening round of the Nassau Class A playoffs.

Garden City, with a 13-4 record, came into the game as the number 6 seed, while West Hempstead was the number 11 seed. The girls will now move on to play number 3 seed Division in Levittown on Wednesday evening.

The first half was a battle of turnovers and missed opportunities as both teams appeared to be a little tentative with the ball. For Garden City it was the tenacity of Kerry McCarraher, the outside shooting of Tara DeAngelo and the rebounding of Taylor Carpentier that kept the game in favor of the Trojans. As the halftime horn sounded Garden City held a 20-13 lead.

Coach Anthony Sparacia got a scare in the first half as All-County guard Sam Auricchio took a hard fall as she went up for a put back basket. Auricchio went to the locker room to ice her right elbow and shake off the hard hit to return in the second half and finished up with eight points.

After the somewhat sloppy first half the teams came out of the halftime break running and gunning to put up solid offensive numbers in the third period. The West Hempstead Rams put up 17 points in the quarter with their scoring led by Jackie and Nicole Christenson as the duo hit from both inside the paint and the outside.

But Garden City wouldn’t let the Rams back in the game as they pushed their lead to 10 at the end of three quarters with 20 points in the quarter. Led by Becky Reifler and Michaela Bruno pushing the ball up court the Trojans were able to fight off the Rams' charge and led 40-30.

In the fourth quarter the Lady Trojans stepped up their defense and closed out the game by giving up only three points to West Hempstead. With the trap press working effectively with DeAngelo and McCarraher applying the pressure, Garden City forced five quick turnovers to put the game out of reach.

Scoring leaders for Garden City were DeAngelo with 12, Carpentier and Reifler with nine apiece and Auricchio and Bruno with eight each. Carpentier and McCarraher also played a strong inside game with 9 and 6 rebounds apiece.

For the Rams it was Nicole Christenson with 13 and Jackie Christenson with 11.

Garden City will look to keep the season going with a tough match up Wednesday against a strong Division Avenue squad.