Loyola’s Grace Conrad boxes out Columbia Prep’s Penny Savryn. (William Thomas)
Reality set in for Loyola and it wasn’t pleasant.
The Lady Knights found themselves down 14 points to rival Columbia Prep late in the first quarter. It was the school’s senior and sports night and they needed the win to likely keep their hopes of a NYSAISAA playoff berth alive.
“I was kind of like in disbelief,” senior forward Grace Conrad said. “How are we letting this happen right now?”
Five straight points to close the frame and the arrival of the school’s mascot and a noisy group of fans, some with Loyola spelled out across their chests, helped change the energy and the team’s fortune. The Lady Knights switched to an aggressive man-to-man defense and began running their sets to perfection, further exciting the crowd.
“They just changed the whole demeanor of the game,” senior point guard Christina DiTolla said.
Loyola ripped off an 18-0 over the second and third quarters and never let the game get in doubt after that. It held off a late Columbia Prep charge and came away with an important 56-39 win in a battle of the NYCAL’s top girls basketball teams.
Loyola, which won the league the last two years, now draws even in the standings with the Lions, who won the first meeting. If both teams win out, the league’s automatic berth to the NYSAISAA tournament will be earned by the postseason tournament winner. Loyola’s four seniors, including Shannon McNamee and and Jessica Luszczyk, have won a division every year up until now.
“We don’t really know anything else,” Christina DiTolla said.
Nicole DiTolla, Christina’s younger sister, led all scorers with 12 points for Loyola (11-3, 3-1), which still has to play third-place Calhoun twice. Christina DiTolla and freshman Hanna May, who had a big three-point play late in the opening quarter, each had 11 points. Andriana Ilnicki scored 10 and Conrad added six of her seven in the second quarter.
Alanna Aurelien paced Columbia Prep (11-4, 5-1) with 11 points and Carly Doyle and Juliet Bartz both chipped in eight.
Conrad was the catalyst to the 22-4 second quarter. She scored, found open teammates and rebounded. A Nicole DiTolla layup gave them their first lead at 20-19 and her older sister hit the first of her two big 3-pointers off a feed from Conrad to help make it 28-19 at the half. An Ilnicki layup pushed it to 32-19 early in the third.
“She rarely made a bad pass,” Loyola coach David Palladino said of Conrad. “She can handle the ball. … It’s like what Anthony Mason use to do with the Knicks years ago, play point forward.”
Doyle had two fouls for Columbia Prep and sat out much of the second quarter. After the game coach Andy Chappell felt he should have trusted her and put her back in, especially with Loyola trying to take away scoring guard Penny Savryn. Columbia Prep rallied back with Doyle and her presence inside in the third quarter.
“I think we were completely out of rhythm the entire game on offense,” Chappell said.
The Lions fought back and were within 38-29 with 38 seconds left in the third after a Bartz layup off a feed from Savryn. Christina DiTolla answered with a long 3-pointer. Columbia Prep got as close as 41-33 early in the fourth after five straight points to open the frame, but never threaten after that.
“I felt like that was a statement kind of shot,” DiTolla said.
So was the win. Loyola wasn’t ready to relinquish control of the division just yet.
“I think we realized this wasn’t going to be easy,” Conrad said. “We need to make this happen. We need to step it up.”
