Kate Nelmes, Samantha Schneider help lead Syosset to Nassau AAA crown

One principle you’ll commonly hear at a basketball practice is to only work on skills you’ll perform in a game. Taking half-court shots could fall under a waste-of-time category.

Kate Nelmes would argue that. And she now has the evidence to back that up. When the Syosset senior would pass up some sips of water during breaks at practice to work on those shots, she knew she wasn’t wasting her time.

She was honing a county-championship winning skill.

With Syosset needing a momentum shifter, the senior made a half-court shot at the buzzer to take a one-point lead into the locker room in the girls basketball Nassau Class AAA final. She took the pass with less than three seconds left from the opposite side of the court, took a few dribbles and fired in the basket.

After countless half court shots attempted at practice, Nelmes knew she was capable of making that low-percentage basket.

“100%,” Nelmes said. “When there are water breaks during practice, we’re practicing half-court shots and it finally paid off. I definitely think it brought up our momentum.”

Syosset carried that momentum into the second half as second-seeded Syosset scored nine of the first 11 points of the third quarter enroute to a 62-53 victory over No. 4 Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK in the girls basketball Nassau Class AAA final at Farmingdale State College on Saturday afternoon.

“We do this all the time at practice but now that it really happened, it changed the momentum,” said junior guard Samantha Schneider, who led Syosset with 23 points. “They were coming back and that put us up at half and we weren’t going to go back down.”

Syosset (20-3) plays the winner of Whitman/Brentwood at 6 p.m. on Saturday at Farmingdale State College in the Long Island Class AAA championship/Southeast Regional Final.

Syosset opened the game on an 11-2 run and led 13-8 after the first quarter. Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK went on a 10-2 run over 2:33 to take an 18-17 lead with 39 seconds left in the second quarter before Nelmes’ half-court shot.

Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK (17-6) rallied again in the third quarter when Emma Heaney scored six of her 20 points over a 13-second span to cut Syosset’s lead to 33-31. But Nelmes followed with a block and dribbled the court before finding Ivy Matthews for a layup, which started an 11-3 run to close the period.

“When they go on a run, you just have to give 10 times more than you had and once you do, it will pay off,” Nelmes said. “That really led us to building more of a lead and then we finally closed it off.”

Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK opened the fourth quarter on a 10-2 run to cut Syosset’s lead to 46-44 with 3:38 left before Schneider made all three foul shots after being fouled on a three-point attempt. The score never returned to a one-possession contest.

Matthews and Jaylah McKay had 14 points each for Syosset. Nelmes added nine points.

Heaney had 20 points, 13 rebounds and six blocks and Nicole Kyriacou had 17 points for Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK.

After winning its second straight county championship, Syosset looks to win its first Long Island crown in program history on Saturday.

“Last year, it was all of our first time getting into the Long Island championship, I don’t think we had the right mindset,” Nelmes said. “But this year, we know we’ve been there and I think we’ll be ready.”

Syosset coach Michael Ferreira credited Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK for a challenging contest.

“They made that as difficult as absolutely possible,” Ferreira said. “They have a special group of seniors over there and they have a lot to be proud of. I’ve been on the other side of this and there’s nothing you can say to make it better. But they did a tremendous job of making that as difficult to win as it was.”

He also credited Nelmes for her tough defense and timely plays, calling her, “What Syosset basketball is all about.”

“That’s just Kate Nelmes doing what Kate Nelmes does. She practices those shots all day at practice, any time we are getting water, she’s getting half- court shots. I was hoping we weren’t going to need it, but I’m happy she has that type of shot in her arsenal and it was huge going into halftime.”