Fourth-Quarter Lead Fades as the Bobcats Lose to Irvington
A hot start and cold finish added up to a disappointing outcome for the Byram Hills girls’ basketball team on Saturday evening.
Facing host Irvington in the finale of the day-long Autism Classic, the Bobcats built a 10-point first-half lead, but a 19-4 Bulldog run in the fourth quarter completely turned the game around and left Byram Hills with a 61-55 loss. Despite a game-high 22 points from star guard Beth Corelli, the Bobcats fell to 5-4 this season.
For the Bobcats, who were on a four-game winning streak before a three-week stretch of inactivity derailed their momentum, the dispiriting loss to Irvington was their second of the week. On Monday, they had lost by a point at Rye in overtime on a last-second put-back shot by a player who had never scored a varsity basket before.
Corelli, recently named the Con Edison Athlete of the Week, got Byram Hills off to a strong start against the Bulldogs, now 7-2. She scored 10 first-quarter points, including the first basket of the contest, a long 3-pointer from left of the key, after the teams had battled scoreless for nearly the first three minutes.
A 3-point shot from Bobcat junior guard Amy Gagliardi with just over two minutes left in the first quarter broke a 7-7 tie and Corelli followed with a 17-foot jumper off the dribble nearly a minute later. A pullup trey by Corelli with five seconds to go off of a midcourt inbounds play gave Byram Hills a 15-7 advantage after one quarter.
The Bobcat lead grew to 10 points just 11 seconds into the second quarter when Corelli, using a screen from teammate Olivia Barry, banked in a 15-foot shot. Byram maintained its double-digit margin as Kelsey Vaquero scored on a fast-break layup, assisted by Corelli, with 6:38 remaining before halftime.
But Irvington, sparked by Alyson Raimondo and Claire Friedlander, responded with a 12-2 run that tied the game at 21-apiece with 12 seconds left in the half. Regrettably for the Bobcats, Barry, their senior center who had been repeatedly hitting the deck fighting for the ball, took a hard tumble with 3:17 remaining and never returned.
Byram Hills did manage to regain the lead before the break when Carmen Parrotta spun into the lane for a hook shot while getting fouled. She added the free throw for a conventional 3-point play. Parrotta’s put-back basket 12 seconds into the second half increased the Bobcat edge to 26-21 before a 10-2 Bulldog blitz over the next three minutes changed the momentum again.
A couple of Corelli baskets on drives restored the Byram lead and 3-pointers from Vaquero and Gagliardi 30 seconds apart opened up a 39-34 margin. But the quarter ended with Bulldog center Katie LeBuhn, who finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds, beating the buzzer with a reverse layup on a put-back shot.
The fourth quarter began with a splash for the Bobcats as Kiley Blackmar and Grace Corelli each hit 3-pointers in the first 45 seconds, stretching the Byram lead to 45-36. But Irvington soon went on its decisive 19-4 run. LeBuhn began the burst with a basket down low and she ended it with two free throws that gave the Bulldogs a six-point lead with 40 seconds to go.
Beth Corelli made a steal under the basket and dropped in a lefty layup with 27 seconds left and Grace Corelli weaved through traffic to spin in another shot off glass with 16 seconds on the clock, but it wasn’t enough. Irvington’s Amanda Raimondo made four straight foul shots in the final seconds to open up a 61-53 lead and seal the Bobcats’ fate.
-Andy Jacobs
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.
Read Andy’s archived work here.
