Foxes Cap a Big Week by Defeating Yorktown
Kris Matts didn’t need any help remembering what happened the previous time his Fox Lane girls’ basketball team had faced Yorktown this season, nearly three weeks ago.
“The first game we played these guys, we lost by one and we missed 13 free throws,” he was recalling on Friday evening, shortly after the teams’ second meeting. “That is not a recipe for a good result.”
Despite using nearly the same exact recipe again by missing six of eight foul shots in the fourth quarter, the Foxes somehow found a way to prevail this time, emerging with a huge 64-59 road victory over the Huskers. Maria Violante, saddled with foul trouble, still scored 24 points and hauled in 16 rebounds as Fox Lane capped a 3-0 week and avenged one of its three losses this season.
“She was out of the game in key moments, and without her we didn’t step up,” said Matts about his star junior forward. “And they (the Huskers) were able to keep it close because of that. She had four fouls at the end there, a very dangerous situation.”
Matts, normally reluctant to criticize officials, couldn’t hide his disgust with them after his team, thanks to a key 3-pointer by eighth-grader Natalie Pence with 30 seconds remaining, had escaped with the narrow win. He said some of the calls against Violante were “ridiculous” and added that “the officiating was terrible the entire game.”
Still, the Foxes were able to go on an 11-3 run at the start of the second quarter after being tied 13-apiece after the first eight minutes. A put-back bucket by Violante with 2:20 left in the half gave them a 29-20 advantage. When Yorktown closed within four points again, Pence connected on a 3-point shot with 32 seconds on the clock that gave Fox Lane a 32-25 halftime lead.
The Foxes opened up their largest lead of the night, 12 points, by scoring the first five points of the second half. Senior guard Katie Morales, who along with Lucy Crerend finished with 14 points, drove through the lane for a basket that left Yorktown trailing 37-25 with 6:10 remaining in the third quarter.
But the Huskers got six points from Mackenzie Merson during a 10-0 response that quickly whittled the Foxes’ double-digit lead to just two points. A reverse layup by Alyssa Francese, who led Yorktown with 20 points, with 35 seconds to go in the third quarter left the Foxes leading 42-40 heading to the fourth.
A 3-pointer by Kathryn Severino moved the Huskers within 46-45, then a fast-break layup from Jesse Barer with six minutes left gave Yorktown its only lead of the second half. The Foxes responded with a 7-0 spurt as Morales made a 15-foot baseline jumper and Violante drained a right-corner 3-pointer out of a timeout, then followed it with a spin through the lane for another basket 30 seconds later.
Yorktown managed to close within two points twice down the stretch, but never regained the lead. On three different occasions in the game’s final three minutes, the Foxes went to the line and missed a pair of free throws. All three times, they grabbed the rebound and scored on a put-back. Violante had two of those baskets, the second one giving Fox Lane a 61-57 edge with 1:06 on the clock.
“We can’t rely on that,” said Matts about the inability of Yorktown to secure a rebound three straight times. “We’re missing free throws in big situations. We need to put those away. There’s a reason they call ‘em ‘free throws.’”
A Yorktown basket with 52 seconds left trimmed the Foxes’ lead to just two points, but Pence provided her second 3-pointer of the game, this time from the left corner, just over 20 seconds later to seal the victory.
The big win over the Huskers was Fox Lane’s second in 48 hours. On Wednesday, the Foxes put an end to Roy C. Ketcham’s 14-game winning streak with a 58-48 triumph. Violante, returning to action after a recent ankle sprain that occurred in the last two minutes of a practice, had 20 points and 14 rebounds, while Crerend added 15 points and Caitlin Lane 10.
The game was tied at halftime, but the Foxes, now 13-3 this season, outscored the visiting Indians 33-23 in the second half. Fox Lane erupted for 18 points in the final quarter, getting eight of them from Violante.
“We played really well that game,” said Matts. “You know, the girls are battle-hardened, battle-tested. They showed it in that game. The Ketcham win was huge because it vaulted us over them.”
The victories against a red-hot RCK team and a dangerous Yorktown squad playing on its own home floor have Matts thinking his players are just about ready for what awaits them in the rapidly approaching postseason.
“It shows they’ve got the resolve to make a run in the playoffs,” he said. “If you clean up the mental mistakes, they’ve got the toughness, they’ve got the desire and they’ve got the talent to make a deep run.”
Andy is a sports editor at Examiner Media, covering seven high schools in the mid-Westchester region with a notebook and camera. He began there in the fall of 2007 following 15 years as a candid photographer for the largest school picture company in the tri-state area.
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