By Dylan Butler
White, who will play at Manhattan College next year, buried four free throws in the final 91 seconds to secure a critical 53-48 win for the Archbishop Molloy girls' basketball team against Bishop Ford Monday at Jack Curran Gymnasium.While junior Shannon LaVelle and the other underclassmen wanted to win for the four seniors who were honored in a pre-game ceremony, the victory also kept the Stanners alive in the race for second in the Brooklyn/Queens Division I standings.”I don't know if it was worth all the preparation,” White said of the Senior Night ceremony. “But I love playing here. It stinks that it's my last time.”If Molloy beats The Mary Louis Academy in a game scheduled for Wednesday night, the Stanners would be the No. 2 seed in the Diocesan playoffs because of a tiebreaker. The top two seeds (Christ the King has already wrapped up the No. 1 spot) earn a first-round bye.”I told the girls to enjoy dinner, go to bed and wake up hungry,” Molloy coach Dom Cecala. White made sure the final regular-season game in Jamaica Estates was for more than just bragging rights, finished with 13 points, her final four from the stripe gave the Stanners a 52-48 lead with 58.2 seconds left.LaVelle, who scored a game-high 15 points, added one more free throw with 45.4 seconds left after drawing a controversial fifth foul call on Bishop Ford star Jamie Conroy.Just before a Molloy inbound, the two collided along the sideline. Stanners coach Dom Cecala knew a foul was coming, he just wasn't sure which way the referee would point.”The whole game we were going back and forth, guarding each other,” LaVelle said of Conroy, who will play at Northeastern University next season.That call finally deflated a scrappy Bishop Ford team that trailed for much of the game, but wouldn't go away.”That was crazy,” White said. “[LaVelle] plays so tough all the time. It was probably the turning point of the game. [Conroy] was the one who kept them going.”Reach Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
