NEWS | THE NORTHPORT RECORD, MARCH 4, 2005

Girls’ Basketball » Northport 67, North Babylon 59

Gandolfi Helps Northport Steal 9th Title

Junior scores 24 as Lady Tigers force 25 turnovers for Class AA title

By Michael R. Sisak / The Northport Record

Northport junior Corrine Gandolfi attached a caveat to the final shot she took during warm-ups before the Class AA Championship game at St. Joseph’s College, Friday night.

“If I make this in, I’m going to play amazing,” Gandolfi told teammate Kelly Dunne, a junior guard who runs alongside her in the Lady Tigers’ backcourt.

Gandolfi made the shot, a jumper from behind the three-point arc. She followed with the best overall performance of her career. She scored 24 points, secured 9 steals and shot a cool 12-for-13 at the free-throw line as Northport, the No. 1 seed, defeated No. 2 North Babylon 67-59.

Gandolfi emerged as Northport held a 38-36 lead with a minute-and-a-half left in the third quarter. A swell of pressure from half-court traps had quelled the usual high-scoring power of both teams (North Babylon ranked No. 1 in the county in offensive production, Northport ranked No. 2, but combined for just 18 points in the quarter).

Following a timeout, Gandolfi poked the ball out of the hands of North Babylon guard Dominique Grice. Dunne grabbed it, started at the basket and drew contact. Dunne made both of her free throws and Northport led 40-36. Gandolfi produced a similar result on the next North Babylon possession. She swooped for a steal and dribbled to the hoop Junior Sareyra Little denied the layup with a bump. Gandolfi hit both free throws.

“That got us going, that got us the momentum. We got a bunch of fast break layups, we got transition off that,” Dunne said, her voice straining over the commotion of celebrating teammates nearby. Dunne contributed 4 points. “If we didn’t get all those steals we really wouldn’t have won the game.”

Keri Schumacher, the Northport junior forward who was charged with the defensive mission of commanding a 2-3 zone and denying inside penetration, opened the fourth quarter with a pair of free throws. She finished with 9 points.

Following a deposit by North Babylon’s junior tank Gabrielle Green (16 points), Gandolfi stepped into the wing in front of the Northport bench and landed a three-pointer.

Chanel Chisolm (23 points), the precocious North Babylon sophomore guard who led the county in scoring with 24.2 points per game, hit a jumper to keep Northport within 5.

Gandolfi answered with a steal and a pair of free throws and levitated for a breathtaking block. Gandolfi leaped and denied a three-pointer from Jessica Fillipone, the junior forward from North Babylon who at 6-foot-3 has a 9-inch height advantage. Dunne picked up the ball and lobbed it up to Gandolfi. Fillipone banged her and, following a timeout, Gandolfi hit both free throws.

“We played our defense awesomely,” Gandolfi said. “A big part of our win was our defense. That’s the strong part of our game. We knew the score was close, that we needed some fast break steals and that was going to stop them.”

Gandolfi had struggled with converting three steals into points in the first half, but regained her focus with a spell on the bench in the second quarter.

“She tried to do a little too much early and then we sat her down for a minute or two and sometimes the perspective of when you’re sitting down and watching [helps],” coach Rich Castellano said. “She went back in the game and I think she had a better plan.”

Schumacher, flanked by seniors Ali Fourney and Jillian Byers in the Lady Tigers’ forward-laden zones and wing-side traps, received high praise for her quiet command of the inside defense. She held Christine Huber, a 6-foot-1 eighth grader, to 10 points and flushed Green and Chisolm away from key rebounds and high-percentage points.

“Keri played awesome. She was fighting over those girls. She did it in practice yesterday, we saw it and we kept her there,” assistant coach Brian Willie said. “It was hard to match them physically, they’re a tough team and Keri answered the call.”

Schumacher, who is 5-foot-7, is quick and possesses a vertical leap that is envied by teammate Whitney Ahern, a senior reserve forward.

“Just get in front, that’s all you had to do,” Schumacher said of her defensive strategy. “If she doesn’t get the ball, she can’t hurt you.”

The victory gave the Lady Tigers their ninth county championship and extended a season-long unbeaten streak to 23 games. The Lady Tigers have not lost a regular season or elimination playoff game on Long Island in two years.

“It’s nice when things work out. It’s nice that we haven’t lost to a team on Long Island in two years, it’s nice that we’ve gone through an undefeated season so far,” Castellano said, his speech accelerated. “It’s nice that this is the ninth county championship that we have. We have a drill where we have to shoot 8 threes before we stop and every year we’ve added one on and I said to them, about two days ago, it would be nice if we could add number nine on instead of number eight.”