Two local North Shore high school varsity basketball teams reached the end of their postseason runs this past week.
The Manhasset varsity girls lost a tough contest to Garden City, 37-30, in the Class A Quarterfinals on Wednesday Feb. 17 and the Wheatley varsity boys dropped fell in the Nassau B title game to Oyster Bay 56-42 on Thursday Feb. 18.
For Manhasset, their game was a low scoring, tight defensive battle that went back and forth from start to finish.
Manhasset had the edge in play in the first and third quarter while Garden City dominated the second and fourth.
“It was very low scoring because both teams played very tough defense and took responsibility to shut down the person they were guarding” said Manhasset Head Coach Lauren Sadeh. “It was also a very physical game from the tip off.”
Sadeh felt offensively they could have played better and not rush the attack. This contributed to the low offensive performance.
Despite being on the losing end, Chloe Murphy played a great game and finished with a game high 18 points and seven blocks.
Erin Barry played well in the game as well and finished with nine points.
For Manhasset, this was a tough pill to swallow due to the hype going into the game.
Despite playing hard against an evenly matched Garden City, this was not how Sadeh and her squad wanted the season to end.
“We were disappointed losing to Garden City because we beat them previously during the regular season” said Sadeh. “We knew this was a great matchup for us and it gave us the greatest chance of getting to the semifinals.”
For the Wheatley Boys, they would be outplayed by Oyster Bay in the Nassau Class B Finals at LIU Post.
Down by 15 at halftime, Wheatley fought their way back in the second half as they cut the lead down to six with 2:46 left to play.
However, Oyster Bay would their shots down the stretch to secure the win.
Hunter Pomerantz, who received All-Conference postseason recognition, led the team with 13 points. Anthony Cutinella, who was named All-County, finished with eight points.
Head Coach Jim Curcio described this season as a roller coaster, filled with exciting wins and a few heartbreaking losses. In a season with several highs and lows, it was a grind to get to where they finished. For Curcio, he couldn’t be any more proud with the run his team had this year.
“The team accomplished one of their team goals which was to play for a County Championship” said Curcio. “This was the third time in four years that Wheatley has played in this game winning the previous two.”
