By Mitch Abramson
The fans went crazy over the gaffe, but it is questionable which was more shocking: Richmond Hill's mix-up over whether she was shooting two free throws or a one-and-one, or that De la Cruz actually missed a shot in the fourth quarter.The sophomore from Lab Museum (25-2) was scintillating, scoring 34 points, 18 in the final quarter during the top-seeded Gators' 58-45 win over Richmond Hill in the PSAL 'B' girls' championship game at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Friday.Leading 35-27 in the second half, third-seeded Richmond Hill (22-3) appeared close to winning the school's first ever girls' 'B' title, but that was before De La Cruz began to heat up. She hit three of her team's four baskets to end the third quarter, the last on a rainbow 3-pointer in which she pump-faked her defender out of position, took a dribble to her right, and let the ball fly directly in front of her bench to tie the score at 36. It was a sign of things to come.”I began to feel it after I hit a couple shots in a row,” she said. “I had the hot hand and my teammates kept getting me the ball. I was trying to step up in the first half and coach (Vincent Murray) told me to stay calm. I've been that hot before, but never in such a big game.”After Richmond Hill's Helin Marte scored on a driving finger roll to begin the fourth quarter, De La Cruz answered quickly with four straight baskets and two free throws to give her team a 46-43 lead. Marte, the linchpin of Richmond Hill who was second in the city with 32.3 points a game, tried to match De La Cruz basket for basket, but De La Cruz was operating on a different level and Marte needed to be flawless in order to match her offensively. Caught between trying to get her less talented teammates involved and keeping pace with De La Cruz, Marte, a junior, struggled but still finished with 25 points, 7 steals, 6 rebounds and 5 assists.”I could see that Helin was getting frustrated in the third quarter,” said Richmond Hill coach Shep Grazioli, in his 15th season. “We were missing a lot of easy shots, and I could see (Marte) was trying to do too much. I figured that if we did what we had to do offensively, it wouldn't matter (how many points De La Cruz scored). We knew that De La Cruz was the player to stop, but, not to knock De La Cruz, we've played against better players than her.”De La Cruz's performance was startling even to her coach, who watched her unravel as a freshman in a second round playoff loss to Brandeis. At halftime Friday, Murray could tell that De La Cruz was despondent over trailing 29-25, and he offered her words of encouragement to make sure she didn't duplicate last year's damaging performance.”We were down like 6 or 7 and she panicked and started taking a lot of 3's,” Murray said. “That was the hottest I had ever seen her. You just sit back and watch and let her go until she shoots herself out.”Marte, the heart and soul of Richmond Hill's team, remained on the court after it was over, wiping tears from her eyes.”We wanted to win for Richmond Hill so badly,” she said. “I was trying to keep us in the game. Amanda was the difference today.”Reach reporter Mitch Abramson by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300 Ext. 130.
