Artie LaGreca described it as “Lid on the Basket for Jewel Day.” It is the holidays after all.
The Midwood girls basketball coach watched Northeastern-bound Jewel Tunstull struggle from start to finish against Archbishop Molloy. The 6-foot-3 senior scored just three points, all from the free throw line. She missed free throws early and had some layups roll out late.
“It feels like they greased the basket or something,” Tunstull said.
She and senior forward Beranda Felder combined for just six points as the Hornets fell, 50-27, to host Archbishop Molloy in non-league girls basketball last Saturday afternoon in Briarwood. Brittany McFadden led Midwood with six points and Francess Henry had five. Felder added 10 rebounds.
“I think she put the ball down on the floor,” LaGreca said of Tunstull. “They got a hand on it a lot. Her effort was there. She played as hard as she can, just nothing was dropping.”
Tunstull, who was scoreless in the first half, credited Molloy’s Binghamton-bound forward Kyra Aloizos, who had 10 points, with playing her physical and the Stanners for crashing the boards as a team. Molloy jumped out to a 10-2, first-quarter lead, but the Hornets (5-6) pulled within 14-12 on a 3-pointer from Yashika Morales from the right side with 2:15 left in the first half.
“They did really good, especially [Aloizos],” Tunstull said. “I couldn’t get around her. She is just really built.”
LaGreca felt his team played hard and did its job on the defensive end. Molloy just made runs at key points in the game. Kelly Guerriero (nine points) scored five of Molloy’s next six points, including a 3-pointer to make it 20-14 at the half. The Stanners (4-4) pulled away to start the second half with an 11-3 run behind Aloizos and point guard Marielle Duryea, who scored nine points and started to get into the passing lanes, to open up a 31-17 advantage with a minute left in the third quarter.
