By Marc Raimondi
Mike Eisenberg calls Julianne Torres his most aggressive player – and for a freshman, that's a rare trait. The 5-foot-5 guard certainly proved her coach right against Grand Street Campus on Friday afternoon.
With the Francis Lewis girls' basketball team trailing by a point late in the third quarter, Torres made a trio of threes – accounting for nine of the Patriots' next 12 points – putting her team ahead for good in an eventual 60-53 league win in Brooklyn.
“Thank God for [her],” said senior point guard Sylvia Davis, who scored 11 in an off shooting day. “I'm surprised in her confidence…She's not playing like a freshman.”
It's taken some time for Torres, who had all nine of her points in that stretch, to gain that confidence. But she's become an integral part of a Francis Lewis (9-2 Queens AA) team that looks poised to win yet another division title.
“Sometimes I'm a little scared, because you know how Eisenberg is – he's a little crazy,” Torres said with a laugh.
The coach has shown confidence in her, too, and it's paid off. Torres also had nine points in a loss Monday at South Shore, including a three-pointer that gave the Patriots the lead with 1:44 left in the third quarter. Her first three against Grand Street came with 3:21 left in the third and put Lewis up, 36-35.
“Julie is a pretty good shooter and she's probably our most aggressive perimeter defender,” Eisenberg said.
Andree DeLeon showed some aggression on the inside, too. The junior forward had 20 points and was particularly effective on strong moves to the basket.
Two layups by Davis, off screens as she was fed by senior guard Chrissy Toth, sealed the game for Lewis. The final one put the Patriots up, 59-50, with 42.8 seconds left.
It's a play Davis, who is nursing a bone bruise on her right elbow, said the team has been working on lately in practice. The St. Thomas Aquinas-bound guard is wearing a black sleeve on the injured elbow and plans to go to the doctor to get a second opinion.
“A bruise doesn't last this long,” Davis said.
Simone Victor, a Bishop Loughlin transfer, led Grand Street Campus (5-6 Brooklyn AA Group 2) with 28 points and Edith Santiago and Bette Davis added 10. Lewis was coming off a 68-10 thrashing of Cardozo on Wednesday and has gained some momentum after a slow start – much like the Patriots did last year.
They just thought beating the Wolves would have been a little easier than it turned out to be.
“In the first half, it looked like their team wanted it more than us,” Eisenberg said.
But Lewis turned it on in the second half – led by Torres' flurry – and escaped Grand Street's noisy, boisterous gym with a key road victory.
“I'm satisfied with the win,” DeLeon said. “A win is a win.”
Reach Associate Sports Editor Marc Raimondi by e-mail at mraimondi@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 130.
