Cold Spring Harbor wins small schools title
From left, Cold Spring Harbor's #34 Amanda Spinnato, #4 Jean Atkinson, and #24 Katie Durand pose with the champioship plaque after beating Friends Academy in the Class BC Final. (March 3, 2012) Credit: Kevin P. Coughlin
As one of the taller girls on her team, Kelly Gubitosi is expected to contribute in the rebound column of the boxscore. It doesn't come without hard work and the Cold Spring Harbor forward put in the effort necessary to be a factor on the inside Saturday afternoon.
"I was trying to get as many rebounds as I can and try not to get hurt," she said.
Gubitosi had several putback baskets as she had 10 points and six rebounds to lead Cold Spring Harbor to a 44-33 win over Friends Academy in the Nassau girls basketball Small Schools Championship Saturday at LIU Post.
It is the first Small Schools title for the Seahawks, who avenged their loss to the Quakers in last year's game.
The teams got off to a very slow start as Cold Spring Harbor led 7-4 after the first quarter. It was only the fifth time all season the Seahawks (18-2) had scored seven or fewer points in a quarter. Action picked up in the second when the Seahawks went on an 11-2 run to take a 23-12 lead and went into halftime up 24-17.
"We definitely wanted to get the win but we came into it slow and I feel like we weren't really focused. But then we picked it up," Gubitosi said.
Cold Spring Harbor went to its bench regularly as seven players scored for the Seahawks despite a rough shooting performance, particularly from long range. The Seahawks also played much slower than usual, even winding the shot clock down on each possession during the third quarter in a pseudo-Princeton offense.
"When we shoot poorly, our offense looks very bad and it wasn't our best effort on the offensive end tonight," Cold Spring Harbor coach Rory Malone said.
Lindsey O'Sullivan had 14 points and Kristina Kim had nine of her 11 points in the fourth quarter for Friends Academy (6-12).
With the Long Island Championship still to play, the long-term goal of staying healthy and the short-term intention of winning the game were a difficult balancing act for both teams.
"Definitely not our best game. It's kind of what I expected, though," Malone said. "We're happy to win and we're happy to be injury-free at the end of it.
"The main goal was to go out of here injury-free and a 'W' is a nice extra to it."
Both teams are playing Wednesday in the Long Island Championships at Farmingdale State. The Seahawks face Southampton in the Class B game at 7:30 p.m. and the Quakers face Southold in the Class C game at 5 p.m.
"We've got our hands full but I like where we're at," Malone said. "I think we'll definitely play better versus [Southampton], so we look forward to the challenge."
