Bobcats Use a Second-Quarter Surge to Oust Sleepy Hollow
Up until the final buzzer last Thursday afternoon, there were no surprises for Byram Hills girls’ basketball coach Tara Ryan, whose Bobcats were facing an opponent they had already seen twice since the start of February.
But just as soon as the Bobcats had finished defeating Sleepy Hollow for a third straight time, Ryan was suddenly caught unprepared. Her giddy team gathered around and informed her she had just earned her 100th victory as a coach, then presented her with celebratory balloons and a cake.
“I honestly had no idea,” Ryan would say moments later about reaching the milestone. “I don’t keep track of this, so I’m glad somebody did. I bet it was my dad. I think that’s what I heard. But I’m very happy. That was super nice of the school and the girls to celebrate this.”
With Beth Corelli scoring 22 points and Grace Corelli chipping in with 19, the host Bobcats made sure Ryan would not have to wait another season to reach 100 wins. They used an 11-0 spurt at the end of the first half to break open a close game and went on to a convincing 61-43 triumph in a Section 1, Class A outbracket playoff game that set up a first-round showdown two days later at fifth-seeded Lakeland.
“With a league opponent, you know what they’re gonna do, they know what we’re gonna do,” said Ryan about the matchup between her 12th-seeded Bobcats and the 21st-seeded Horsemen. “Especially with Sleepy Hollow, they’re so talented with Alexa Charles. It’s whoever shows up that day and plays the better 32 minutes, and today was definitely our day.”
Charles, the standout senior guard with a 29-point scoring average, still managed to finish with 25 points in her farewell despite Byram’s box-and-one defense. But Sleepy Hollow’s only lead of the day came when Eva Bertiz scored the game’s first basket. The Bobcats never trailed again once Kelsey Vaquero connected on a 3-pointer that gave them a 4-2 lead with 5:48 to go in the first quarter.
A 17-foot jumper by Bertiz tied the score at 7-7 before Beth Corelli swished a 3-point shot from the right wing exactly midway through the quarter that put the Bobcats in front to stay. Back-to-back layups from Grace Corelli and Kiley Blackmar late in the period increased the Byram Hills lead to 18-11, but then the Horsemen got a little lift as Isabella Smith drilled a 3-pointer just ahead of the buzzer ending the quarter.
Smith’s runner from the right baseline a half minute into the second quarter brought Sleepy Hollow within two points, and the Horsemen were still only behind by three after two free throws by Charles with 5:38 left in the half. But they never scored again before intermission and the Bobcats went on an 11-0 run to open up a 32-18 halftime cushion.
Grace Corelli sparked the Bobcat spurt, scoring seven of the points, starting with a long 3-point shot from the left elbow on a feed from her sister. Next came a drive left of the lane that she finished using her left hand. With 2:34 left in the half, she received an inbounds pass from under the basket to score inside, stretching the lead to 12 points.
The Bobcats’ big run was capped with just over a minute remaining in the second quarter as Beth Corelli got a step on Charles, moved into the lane and then split of pair of Horsemen for a toss off glass. Byram, which had needed a 3-pointer by Vaquero with six seconds to go to barely win at Sleepy Hollow just 10 days earlier, would not require any late-game heroics this time. The Horsemen never got any closer than 10 points after halftime.
“You know what, against such a solid team, it takes time to start to chip away,” said Ryan. “And that’s what we were able to do. You get a couple-minute stretch and before you know it, it’s eight points. You just keep trying to increase it there, keep reiterating our defensive strategies, which happened to work today. And our players played great.”
With Grace Corelli providing eight points in the first three and a half minutes of the second half, highlighted by a short half-hook shot off a spin move in the lane, the Bobcats built their lead up to 40-25. But with just over a minute left in the quarter, Charles banked in a trey from the right key, then followed with a drive through traffic 25 seconds later. That gave her 1,500 points for her career and brought the Horsemen within 43-33.
But the third quarter ended with a buzzer-beating layup by Byram’s Carmen Parrotta, and then the Bobcats made sure the fourth quarter would have very little drama. They scored the first four baskets, starting with Beth Corelli going backdoor for a layup, assisted by Parrotta. Another Beth Corelli bucket, this time on an underhand scoop in the paint, was soon followed by baskets from Vaquero and Olivia Barry.
The Byram Hills lead was suddenly up to 20 points before Charles ended the spurt with two free throws. A fast-break layup by Grace Corelli with 3:13 left in the game gave the Bobcats their largest lead of the afternoon, 59-35, and it wasn’t long before they were hastily putting together the post-game surprise for their coach, who had nothing but praise for what her star players were able to do against the Horsemen.
“Yeah, they’re fantastic players, both Beth and Grace,” she said. “I thought our other teammates did really well at opening them up for their lanes. They really allowed Beth and Grace to do what they naturally do. So we’re happy with our post players, who are coming out and doing that. When they’re offensive-minded, you can’t focus on the Corellis as much. I believe that’s what has been keeping us winning the last three weeks.”
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.
Read more of Andy’s full bio here.
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