St. John Villa entered the CHSAA state playoffs with something to prove after ending its regular season with a 19-point loss to first-round opponent St. Francis Prep.
“We just knew that we could beat them,” freshman guard Dorothy O’Neill said.
Then she and her team went out and proved it.
Villa outplayed and outhustled the visiting Terriers for most of the first three quarters. It then made enough plays down the stretch to secure a 61-53 win in the CHSAA Class A state girls basketball tournament Wednesday on Staten Island. Nicole Francomano scored 18 points, including critical free throws down the stretch and O’Neill had 11. The Bears advance to play Nichols (Buffalo) 7:30 pm. Friday at Cardinal Spellman in the semifinals .
“They were excited to be in the state playoffs,” Villa coach Liz Blanchard said. “I think earlier in the year no one would have thought we had a chance at it. They were excited and they wanted to prove something.”
The Bears (15-14) closed the first quarter on a 9-2 run, including six points from Francomano to grab a 13-8 lead. The momentum carried over. Villa did a superb job boxing out and taking advantage of St. Francis Prep’s Jenna Halaby and Meghan Erdman sitting on the bench for most of the second quarter with two quick fouls. It moved the ball well to get open looks, took rebounds out of SFP players’ hands and got a handful of transition baskets. Victoria Gallinaro, who scored eight points, buried a 3-pointer midway through and Maryanna Murphy ended the half with a putback to extend the lead to 29-17.
“I think they came in thinking it was going to be an easy game because of the last time,” Francomano said, “especially after the first few minutes of the first quarter when they started to go on run.”
Villa got contributions up and down the roster from unfamiliar faces. One of those was O’Neill, who has been a spark plug at times and was again today. She rebounded against players bigger than her, had big baskets and set up her teammates with some smart passing. Blanchard believed she and some of her other teammates have become more confident offensively and are looking for their own shot more.
“She looks to pass. She looks to get everyone involved,” the coach said of O’Neill. “I think she kind of hid under the radar a little because people look for points. She has done everything for us all year long. … If other teams don’t know about her, I’m good.”
St. Francis Prep (11-16) made several pushes in the second half behind Adelphi-bound Jenna Halaby, who scored all 11 of her points in the second half, and Shatira Hamlet, who dropped in 20. The Bears, though, just kept coming up with answers.
A Katherine Kraus 3-pointer got SFP within 41-31 with 1:20 left in the third, but Jackie Diaz buried a free throw line jumper and made 1-of-2 free throws to extend the lead back to 13. Gallinaro added a big trey early in the fourth, but with Hamlet attacking the lane the Terriers cut the lead to 57-52 with 48.5 seconds left in the game and saw Danielle Iacampo makes just 1-of-2 free throws. Erdman threw the ball away down the other end the Bears were 8-of-13 from the line in the fourth to help put the game way.
“We were in control of the whole game,” Blanchard said. “I think they still felt like they were in control at that point.”
