By Joseph Staszewski
Christmas was days away, but there were no visions of sugarplums dancing in the heads of Amani Tatum and her teammates. The only thing on the Stanners’ minds was the present of earning an important win over Bishop Ford.
“We said that we weren’t going to leave this gym without winning,” Tatum said. “We were going to fight just to win this game.”
She proved it. It was the James Madison-bound guard who scored nine points during a 13-1 third quarter run and Molloy hung on for a 57-50 win over visiting Bishop Ford in CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens Division I girls’ basketball Saturday. The victory puts the Stanners alone in first place in the early stages of the season and avenges last season’s loss to Ford in the diocesan semifinals.
“We came into this game with a chip on our shoulder knowing we all really want this,” senior forward Carolyn Gallagher said.
Tatum, who dropped in a game-high 21 points, help Molloy (5-1, 3-0) go up 48-32 with 1:30 left in the third after the spurt. All game her team outhustled and outworked the Falcons to loose balls and rebounds. Gallagher scored 12 points and Aryn McClure added five of her nine points in the fourth quarter. Patti Dorgler had six points and grabbed nine rebounds.
“The biggest thing was coming in and doing the little things.” Tatum said, “whether it was boxing out, no offensive rebounds, no second possessions, just the little things we had to do to win the game.”
Both teams were sloppy at times, but Molloy missed just three free throws to Ford’s 10. The Stanners didn’t let the Falcons (4-2, 3-1) get points off turnovers, handling its pressure extremely well throughout the game. Jill Conroy paced Ford with 12 points. Aaliyah Lewis and Aaliyah Jones, who fouled out in the fourth quarter, both has nine points.
“We played terrible,” Ford Coach Mike Toro said. “Molloy showed they wanted it more.”
Ford did attempt a rally late in the fourth quarter with a 6-0 run that got it as close as 56-50 with 1:03 remaining. A turnover and a missed shot by Aaliyah Lewis, who is headed to St. John’s, kept them from getting any closer. Molloy had brought home the present it was looking for.
“You get a mentality that we work so hard for this that no one is going to take it way from us,” Stanners Coach Scott Lagas said. “That’s what they came with today.”
