Waiting in the wings

Amanda Burakoski is one of the city’s top talents. She has a who’s who of colleges from which to choose. At a smooth 6-foot-1, she can beat opponents in the paint or on the perimeter, off the dribble or via the 3-point shot.
Nevertheless, the contributions of those surrounding her will likely determine Mary Louis’s fate, especially now that forward Maral Javadifar (10.6 PPG, 9.6 RPG), the third-leading scorer from last year’s State Federation Class A champion, is likely done for the season after tearing the ACL in her knee this September.
“This is not the Amanda Show,” Mary Louis Coach Joe Lewinger said. “I hope people prepare to stop just Amanda so the rest of the girls can do what they are capable of doing. We’ll be fine that way.”
The Hilltoppers are deeper than many might have guessed - and they will need to be since Lewinger compiled a daunting schedule that includes many of nation’s top teams, including preseason No. 1 Notre Dame Academy (VA) and Colorado state champion Regis Jesuit.
The most important of the nine newcomers will be freshman point guard Karin Robinson, a lightning quick Jamaica native who will be asked to fill the shoes of last year’s all-everything floor general Casey Shevlin.
Whenever Mary Louis was in trouble, Shevlin bailed them out. She hit big shots, broke the opposition’s press, kept her younger teammates composed. So far, the 5-foot-2 Robinson has impressed.
In a recent scrimmage against national powerhouse Murry Bergtraum, the defending State Federation Class AA champs and a team renowned for forcing turnovers, she handled the press with aplomb, breaking it repeatedly.
“She has a lot of courage,” senior center Kelly Carman said. “She goes straight after people.”
“One day I think she is going to be the best point guard in the city,” Lewinger predicted.
Lewinger also discovered in that preseason test his team is far quicker than last year, when Shevlin was asked to do all the heavy lifting in the backcourt. Besides Robinson, the Hilltoppers return senior shooting guard Kelly Puwalski, who will also see time at the point, and add impressive sophomore Jacqueline Kresse. A 5-foot-7 sharpshooter, Kresse is Burakoski’s understudy. She will have ample time to make a name for herself.
“She’s going to help us out,” Burakoski said.
Lewinger is hoping his two senior 6-foot centers - Carman and Megan White - can offset the canyon-sized loss of Javadifar. He also has two more underclassmen - junior Ciara McBrien and sophomore Andrea Busch - up from a jayvee team that nearly reached the city championship to add depth on the baseline. No one player can replace the offensive punch the Pace-bound Javadifar provided last winter, but all will contribute in their own way.
What the newcomers can’t do, Burakoski almost certainly will try to fulfill. Building on an impressive sophomore season in which she averaged 20 points per game and nine rebounds, the Greenpoint native is almost certainly the best the borough has to offer. Besides her every day duties as the Hilltoppers’ leading scorer, Burakoski will be asked to lead the team, a role she has graciously accepted.
“I have to be a lot louder and have to the one to pick everybody’s heads up,” she said. “People did it for me when I was a freshman and sophomore, so now it’s my turn.”
Despite nearly knocking off Christ the King in the CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens Diocesan final - they led by eight points late in the fourth quarter - Lewinger is leery of lofty predictions. Many called Mary Louis the team to beat this season after winning the Class A title, expectations that were tempered by Javadifar’s devastating injury.
Lewinger prefers to remain grounded. His team, after all, is built on a freshman point guard and several integral sophomores and juniors.
“The goal is to get as far as we possibly can,” he said. “I really do think this team is capable of really good things. The difference between this year’s team and last year’s team is we have a lot more teaching to go over.
“Every experience,” Lewinger added, “is a new experience.”