Katie Pulido heard the challenge laid out by coach JoAnn Wagner heading into the fourth quarter. St. Francis Prep trailed by nine and Wagner told her team the game’s direction was up to them, but they had to play with more heart than they had through the first three quarters.
Pulido and the Terriers answered the call.
“I kind of set a goal for myself to make sure my girl didn’t get the ball or get the rebound,” she said.
The junior accomplished what she set out to do. She finished with 14 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, including nearly every key one down the stretch, to help St. Francis Prep pull out a 62-60 win over Cardinal Spellman in The Bronx in non-league girls basketball Wednesday.
“She rose to the challenge,” Wagner said. “She was not going to be the one to have her man get the offensive rebound or have her man be the one to get the putback. She was determined.”
Instead it was Pulido doing all of those things.
Her jumper at the free throw line tied the score at 49 with 3:30 left. She rebounded a Joanna Verouhis miss and kicked it back out to her for a 3-pointer that put the Terriers (2-0) up for good a minute later. Her board and kick out to Shatira Hamlet for a 3-pointer gave SFP some breathing room at 57-52. St. Francis Prep played without junior forward Martha Banach because of a knee injury.
“Some people don’t even notice her,” junior forward Meghan Erdman said of Pulido.
Pulido couldn’t put the finishing touches on the performance by missing four of five free throws late. Spellman (1-2) cut the lead to 62-60 on a Jo-Marie Aquino put back, but Troi Melton had a ball tipped away from behind at midcourt with two seconds left to seal it. It was a game Wagner said her team wouldn’t have pulled out a year ago.
“It would have been more, ‘It’s about me and it’s not about the team,'” she said. “That’s not present at all this year.”
St. Francis Prep struggled with turnovers to finish the second quarter, was not seeing the outside shot dropping and was allowing Spellman to dictate the play on the glass. Pilots guard Tia Scott was also slashing through its defense. Wagner moved star Jenna Halaby to the point to start the fourth knowing she would slash to the hoop, Erdman began to control the boards and Hamlet did enough defensively to throw Scott and Spellman out of sync.
“I feel like our defense turned us around,” Erdman said. “Shatira started pressuring the ball.”
Erdman scored all 12 of her points in the second half, including nine of the Terriers first 13 to start the fourth quarter. Her putback gave SFP its first lead since early in the third at 47-45. Halaby scored 12 points, Hamlet and Verouhis each added 10. Scott led Spellman with 23 points and Amber Griffin added 11.
“Every challenge that we said to them starting the fourth quarter they took it to heart,” Wagner said. “They played with tremendous heart and desire.”
