Cori Coleman saw the look on Ashley Gomez’s face many times before. It appeared often during their senior season at Murry Bergtraum as the Canisius-bound guard helped will their team to countless tight victories en route to a 13th straight PSAL city championship. It was back again at Orchard Beach.
“The serious look,” Coleman said. “The serious look is when she is mad.”
Gomez again showed her determination to win. She helped lead New Heights to a 14-11 victory over Belles Team 5 at the NYC 33 FIBA 3-on-3 girl’s basketball tournament Saturday afternoon in the Bronx. New Heights was one of the few squads with just three players when you could have up to four on a hot day at the beach. All them will play Division I basketball next season. Coleman is headed to Cleveland State and Antonia Smith is headed to St. Peter’s.
“I was getting upset,” Gomez said. “We were up, so I didn’t want to lose. Did you see a lot of Bergtraum games? We don’t like letting people come back.”
She raced to the basket and beat the halftime buzzer to give New Heights a 7-5 lead at the half. The Belles squad went big forcing the undersized Smith and Coleman to battle more down low. With the score tied at 10, Gomez buried a jumper at the top of key and then converted an acrobatic layup along the right side. The lead was again down to one when Gomez buried a jumper to seal the win.
“We won,” Gomez said. “Coach Rock [Rosa] told us to get it done and we got it done.”
The games were broken up into two five-minute halves with a minute break in between. Scoring was done by ones and twos. The event was also the first time in the United States that FIBA’s 3on3 Digital Platform was used to register players for an eventual global network was used.
The victory put a fitting end to their final days together as teammates. In the semifinals Smith hit Coleman with two beautiful driving feeds for scores. They felt their chemistry was a big reason for their success. The three were a member of the program’s Rose Classic-winning team this spring.
“We ended the summer on a great note,” Smith said. “I’m going to miss these two. It was nice seeing them before we leave.”
