Northport's Ava DeMarco delivers down the stretch in quarterfinal victory

Ava DeMarco is the only sophomore in a Northport starting lineup of juniors and seniors, but when the Tigers most needed baskets to keep their season going, their youngest starter took over.

DeMarco scored 10 of her 19 points in the fourth quarter as No. 6 Northport beat host No. 3 North Babylon, 60-54, in the Suffolk Class AAA girls basketball quarterfinals on Thursday night.

DeMarco repeatedly attacked the basket and made layups, finishing one before contact to give Northport a 58-54 lead with 12 seconds left.

“All my teammates trusted me, so that really got into my head,” DeMarco said. “It made me really want to get the win.”

Claire Fitzpatrick had 20 points for Northport (14-8), which will play No. 2 Whitman (17-4) at 5 p.m. on Wednesday at Comsewogue High School in the Suffolk Class AAA semifinals.

Northport led 15-12 after the first quarter and never lost the advantage, but North Babylon continued to make runs to keep the score close.

The Tigers opened a 54-44 lead with 4:20 left in the fourth quarter before North Babylon’s Jasmine McKay, Long Island’s leading scorer at 25.4 points per game, scored eight straight points in a span of 1:20. Attempting to convert a three-point play, she missed the free throw but corralled the rebound and sank a three-pointer from the corner with three minutes left for a five-point swing to cut Northport’s lead to 54-52.

The North Babylon star finished with 31 points. “We knew we had to stop McKay, and you’re not going to stop her,” Northport coach Richard Castellano said. “So we had to slow her down.”

Northport threw multiple defenses at McKay and the Bulldogs (14-5), which caused frustration and turnovers at times.

“We knew this game was going to come down to the wire and we knew at the end, we just had to play lockdown defense,” Fitzpatrick said. “We knew not to get scared, not to get down and not to get nervous from the crowd, and that’s exactly what we did.”

Isabella Bica added 16 points, all in the first half, for Northport, which led 30-23 at halftime before North Babylon scored the first five points of the third quarter.

The Tigers led 45-40 entering the fourth quarter, which became 45-44 after back-to-back baskets by North Babylon’s Olivia Rush. DeMarco scored six of her 10 fourth-quarter points during an ensuing 9-0 run to give Northport a 54-44 advantage with 4:20 left.

“The big thing we talk about is a team game,” Castellano said. “They can stop one of us, [but] they can’t stop five of us, and I think that’s what the girls showed today.”