Newsday's Long Island All-Decade girls basketball players: The 2010s
Clockwise, from left: Lauren "Boogie" Brozoski, Kaia Harrison and Katie Doherty.
The decade provided a glimpse of two players who would play in the WNBA: Arella Guirantes of Bellport and Celeste Taylor of Long Island Lutheran. They lit up the hardwood on Long Island with deft shooting touch and exciting ball-handling. Guirantes was selected in the second round by the Los Angeles Sparks in 2021 and Taylor was drafted in the second round by the Indiana Fever in 2024.
It was also the decade of "Boogie." As in Lauren "Boogie" Brozoski, a four-time All-Long Island first-team selection who led Long Island Lutheran to four state Federation titles in five years, the most dominant run in Long Island history.
The selection committee consisted of two longtime sportswriters, Gregg Sarra and Mike Candel. Sarra has covered high schools for 40 years. Candel covered high school and college sports from 1976 until his retirement in 2002. Selections are based on the totality of a player's career. This is the 12th and final part of our basketball series.
St. Mary's Jordan Agustus in 2014. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Jordan Agustus, St. Mary’s
The 6-foot forward was a three-time All-Long Island first-team selection and was as good on the inside as she was from the outside. A versatile, athletic playmaker, she averaged 14 points and 11 rebounds and led the Gaels to consecutive CHSAA titles. She scored 29 points in a win over St. Anthony's in the Nassau-Suffolk Catholic High School Athletic Association title game as a junior in 2014. She played at St. John’s, Virginia Commonwealth and University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
Lauren "Boogie" Brozoski, Long Island Lutheran
A four-time Newsday All-Long Island first-team selection, she was named the player of the year three times from 2013-15. She scored 2,020 career points and led the Crusaders to three straight state Federation crowns and four in five years, the most dominant girls basketball run to state supremacy in 44 years. She was the Gatorade state player of the year in 2014 and 2015 and Miss NYS basketball in 2015. She was a showcase of quickness and keen game sense. She played two years at the University of Michigan before transferring to Hofstra, where she thrived as the CAA scholar-athlete of the year. She was named to the CAA All-Tournament Team in the 2018-19 season after averaging 22.7 points and 3.3 rebounds.
Sachem East's Danielle Cosgrove in 2018. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
Danielle Cosgrove, Sachem East
The 6-4 center was a model of consistency throughout her five varsity years, averaging 21 points and 11 rebounds. She was the Newsday Player of the Year as a senior and the three-year captain finished her high school career with 1,573 points, the second most in school history. The McDonald’s All-American played at Notre Dame for three years and then St. John’s for two years.
Katie Doherty, Sachem East
You want ball-handling skills? You want Doherty. She had innate dribble penetration skills that led Sachem to the 2013 Long Island Class AA title as a junior. The 5-10 guard averaged 21 points, seven rebounds and four assists to earn Newsday Player of the Year and lead Sachem East to a second straight Suffolk Class AA crown as a senior. She started in 110 of 123 games for Holy Cross, where she made All-Freshman Patriot League in 2014-15 and Academic All-Patriot League in 2015-16 and 2016-17.
Arella Guirantes, Bellport
Guirantes was the most accomplished player of the decade. A scoring machine, she led Long Island as a junior and senior with 33.6 and 34.8 points per game, respectively. The 5-10 guard, a natural shooter, once scored 58 points in a win over Kings Park. The three-time All-Long Island first-team selection scored 2,252 career points. She played at Texas Tech for a year and then transferred to Rutgers, where she averaged more than 20 points per game and led the Scarlet Knights to the NCAA tournament in her senior year and was named first-team All-Big Ten. Guirantes was the 22nd pick in the 2021 WNBA draft by the Los Angeles Sparks.
Bellport's Arella Guirantes, left, in 2013, and Ward Melville's Lauren Hansen in 2019.
Lauren Hansen, Ward Melville
The 5-10 lightning-quick guard was known for her ball-handling skills and three-point shooting touch. Injuries derailed a few years of her high school career, but she was Newsday's Suffolk Player of the Year in 2019. She nailed a Long Island-best 79 three-pointers and averaged 27.8 points in the 2018-19 season. She played for Auburn, Missouri and Michigan and scored 1,492 points over her collegiate career.
Kaia Harrison, Baldwin
She had an incredible high school career, leading the Bruins to five straight Nassau Class AA titles, three Long Island championships and two public school state crowns. That included an MVP performance in the state Federation win in 2018. Who else can say that? She finished her Wake Forest career ranked second in program history with 145 games played. She was also the second-leading scorer with nine points per game in her senior season.
Baldwin's Aziah Hudson in 2018. Credit: /Hans Pennink
Aziah Hudson, Baldwin
A guard with an explosive first step, she earned All-Long Island first team honors three times from 2016-18. She is Baldwin’s all-time leading scorer and helped lead the Bruins to two state championships. She spent her college career at Old Dominion, where she was named the 2020 Conference USA Co-Sixth Player of the Year as a sophomore and to the C-USA Commissioner’s Honor Roll as a junior.
Long Island Lutheran's Celeste Taylor in 2019. Credit: Hans Pennink
Celeste Taylor, Long Island Lutheran
The 5-11 guard was a potent scorer from anywhere on the floor and earned All-Long Island honors three times. She was a McDonald’s High School All-American and the Newsday Player of the Year in 2019. She started her college career at Texas, averaging 9.3 points and 4.8 rebounds and leading the team with 31 three-pointers. She was named to the Big 12 All-Freshman Team. She transferred to Duke after two years with the Longhorns. As a senior, she was named the ACC Defensive Player of the Year and first-team All-Defense. She finished her college career at Ohio State. She played for Team USA and won three gold medals: 16U in Argentina in 2017, 17U in Belarus in 2018 and 19U in Thailand in 2019. Taylor was drafted by the Indiana Fever of the WNBA with the 15th overall pick in 2024. .
North Shore's Gabrielle Zaffiro, right, in 2018. Credit: Bob Sorensen
Gabrielle Zaffiro, North Shore
The 5-9 guard was one of the premier three-point shooters of the decade. She had a Long Island-best 86 threes as a junior in 2017 en route to being named Newsday’s Player of the Year. The three-time All-Long Island first-team selection had unlimited range and finished her six-year career with 2,644 points, second most in Long Island history. She averaged 29 points per game as a senior. She played three years at Amherst, losing one year to the COVID-19 pandemic.
COACHES OF THE DECADE
Tom Catapano, Baldwin
The Bruins were of the fast-break variety, always in transition and playing suffocating defense. Catapano earned Newsday Coach of the Year in 2014 and 2017. He guided the Bruins to six straight Nassau Class AA titles between 2014-19. He’s led the program to 13 Nassau Class AA conference titles, seven Long Island crowns and three state titles. Baldwin is the only Nassau Class AA school to repeat as state champions, in 2017 and 2018. He led the Bruins to a win over then-undefeated Christ the King, the top-ranked team in the country at the time, to claim the state Class AA Federation title in 2018.
Rich Slater, Long Island Lutheran
He guided the Crusaders to the state Class B Federation championship in 2011, rallying from a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat Irvington. It was the beginning of an incredible run for the Crusaders. In 2012, they were a state Federation Class B finalist before the school’s first state Class A Federation title in 2013. They won a first state Class AA Federation crown in 2014.