The South Shore girls basketball team hadn’t played basketball together since Thursday, thanks to the winter storm that hit the area — and it showed.
The Vikings sufferd a disappointing 44–38 loss to Long Island power St. Mary’s during The Mecca girls basketball event at Gauchos Gym in the Bronx Sunday afternoon. South Shore, which saw its Senior Day game against Medgar Evers cancelled on Friday because of the snow, had just two points in the first quarter and trailed 24–11 at the half.
“We were a little rusty, but that’s no excuse,” South Shore coach Anwar Gladden said.
His team eventually woke up in the fourth quarter, after poor shooting and turnovers haunted it for the first three. South Shore rallied behind a stifling full-court press, converting turnovers by St. Mary’s (16–3) into points. The Vikings (18–3) pulled as close as 43–28 with 32 seconds left in the game on a layup by Iona College-bound forward Aurellia Cammock, who delivered 13 points overall. Aliyah Cooley chipped in 11 points, but the push wasn’t enough.
“We played very lackadaisical in the beginning, but toward the end we started picking it up,” Cammock said. “By then it was too late.”
The team’s defense was one of the few things that pleased Gladden, outside of the opening minutes. He watched St. Mary’s point guard Mei-Lynn Bautista and forward Alyssa James score 11 points each. Gladden was also upset with his squad’s poor passes, noting their first three possessions of the game were turnovers. That set the tone early.
“We got to take care of the ball and find ways to score,” he said.
Gladden was happy to get tested, despite the loss, by one of the top teams in the area before the playoffs begin on Feb. 28. South Shore is in line for the top seed and is one of the favorites to win the Public School Athletic League Class AA title. The loss to St. Mary’s is one it can quickly put behind them.
“Our goal is to win a city championship,” Gladden said. “We needed a game like this. We hadn’t been challenged in a while. We wanted to see what we needed to work on.”
Reach reporter Joseph Staszewski at jstaszewski@cnglocal.com. Follow him on twitter @cng_staszewski.
