Rough fourth quarter ends Stony Brook girls' season
Stony Brook players have hands full with North Shore's 6'7" Danielle Fiacco. (March 12, 2010) Credit: Photo by Patrick E. McCarthy
PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. - The final 1:15 of the third quarter would have been memorable had it not been for a fourth quarter to forget.
Stony Brook hit three straight from downtown late in the third, with Emily Carmel's three-pointer with 2.5 seconds left in the quarter giving the Bears their first lead since the opening minute.
But Stony Brook didn't record another field goal until 11.9 seconds remained in the game, and the Bears scored only five fourth-quarter points in a 45-36 loss to North Salem Friday night in the state Southeast Regional Class C final at Pace.
"It's really sad," said Carmel, who had 16 points and hit two of the three-pointers in the third-quarter run. "We wanted to go all the way, but shots wouldn't fall and we got into foul trouble. That's what killed us."
Stony Brook (20-3) brought a 31-29 lead into the fourth quarter, but North Salem's Jamie Rose Zappolo ignited an 8-0 run to begin the period.
The Bears didn't score until 2:45 remained, when Carmel hit a free throw to cut North Salem's lead to 37-32.
But Danielle Fiacco, the Tigers' 6-7 center, hit a turnaround jumper with relative ease over 5-6 Candace Baker. North Salem (17-5) then sealed the victory at the free-throw line to advance to the state semifinals.
Baker and her teammates did an admirable job defending Fiacco by limiting entry passes and denying her the ball. She finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds, which pale in comparison to the numbers she has been posting. Fiacco had 14 points, 23 rebounds and 15 blocked shots in a victory over Haldane in the Section I final March 2.
But with that defensive pressure came foul trouble for Stony Brook. Baker, Sadie Singer (12 points) and Natalie Istrati fouled out and Brannon Burke picked up four fouls and was held to two points.
The Bears countered a 10-0 first-quarter run by North Salem with an 8-0 spurt of their own, capped by Carmel's straightaway jumper, to pull within two by the end of the quarter. They trailed 21-17 at the half.
"There's going to be great wins, there's going to be tough losses," Stony Brook coach Keith Singer said. "We need to remember what a great season we had. It's tough right now to remember that because we would have liked to have gone to a second straight final four. But I'm really proud of what this group accomplished."
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