St. Peter’s Christine Kline scored 19 points in the win over Moore. (Denis Gostev)
The streak lives on – forever.
St. Peter’s, which will close its doors in June, celebrated its 16th straight CHSAA Staten Island girls basketball title in front a standing-room-only crowd at Monsignor Farrell HS thanks to a thrilling 61-54 overtime win over rival Moore Catholic in a first-place tiebreaker game Thursday night. Senior guard Christine Kline scored 14 of 19 points in the fourth quarter and overtime. Junior Jamie O’Hare added 18 points and sophomore Kristen Olsen had 10.
“It means that the tradition, though it ended, it ended the right way,” said O’Hare. “No one can ever beat us now.”
The Eagles (18-6), ranked No. 5 in the city by The Post, built a 48-43 lead with 1:17 left in regulation sparked by a huge 3-point play by O’Hare. She ripped the ball away from Moore guard Christina Rubin, who had just grabbed a rebound, scored and drew the junior’s fifth foul. Olsen added two free throws.
“I remember last game I ripped it out of Rubin’s hands like that so I figured she would do the same thing,” O’Hare said. “I just ripped it out and put it in and was glad to get the foul call.”
Moore’s Taylor Baggs (19 points) refused to let her team go quietly. She scored five straight points, including a 3-pointer, to tie the score at 48 with 29.5 seconds left. A Kline turnover gave the fourth-ranked Mavericks (20-4) a chance to win, but Gabriella Rubin’s shot at the buzzer fell short after Ashley Motrechuk cut off the pass to Baggs. Nicole Arnone scored 13 points and Jessica Coscia added 10 for Moore, which ended St. Peter’s 34-game league winning streak in early February.
“I felt like I had to,” Kline said of her late heroics. “I’m finally a senior. It was my turn to step up and lead the team. I felt like I did what I was supposed to.”
She struggled, scoring just four points and missing critical free throws down the stretch of a 52-50 loss when the teams last meet. It was a performance she called the worst of her stellar four-year career. This time around the more aggressive Kline was clutch, connecting on 11-of-14 attempts from the line. Consecutive layups from Kline and Olsen and two Kline free throws put St. Peter’s up 58-53 with 37 seconds left in overtime. After two Baggs free throws, Kline made two of her own with 17.4 seconds remaining to seal the emotional win.
“I’ve been doing really bad on the foul line lately.” Kline said. “This boosted my confidence. I don’t know. Something came over me and I started making shots.”
It was something the Eagles weren’t doing in the first half, which played more to the Mavericks physical style. Moore, which took a 25-19 lead into the break, pounded them on the boards and turned long 3-point misses into transition hoops.
“At halftime I told them we could have been down by a whole lot more,” Eagles coach Bob Daggett said. “We should be happy. When we were going to get to play overtime I thought it was tremendous that we were still playing.”
And now they’re still the Queens of Staten Island.
When the final buzzer sounded the players mobbed each other at center court. There were plenty of hugs and congratulations to go around after what has been an emotional few weeks. St. Peter’s, which will be the top seed in the upcoming Archdiocesan tournament, had to win out to ensure this tiebreaker game even happened, including begin pushed for four quarters in their final home game by St. Joseph Hill. This win was as much a relief as joy and certainly one for the history books.
“I’m sure it means more to the girls than it does to me,” Daggett said. “Hopefully it will make things a little bit easier. They have enough to carry on their shoulders though.”
Another championship included.
