By Brandon Mauk
As the right time, the Patriots are showing just how good and how deep they are.
With their leading scorer limited, No. 2 seed Francis Lewis rode the hot hands of two of their other seniors to beat No. 7 Murry Bergtraum 60-51 at York College Sunday, advancing to the PSAL Class AA semifinals for the third straight year. They will face Truman, 5 p.m. Tuesday at St. Francis College. The Patriots won the city title two years ago.
Tested by Bergtraum early, the Patriots had to play with Sierra Green on the bench for much of the game because of foul trouble. They still had more than enough without her, thanks to Taliyah Brisco and Dominique Williams.
Williams scored a game-high 18 points, and Brisco had 16. As Green had already missed some games this season due to injuries, Williams and Brisco were used to stepping up.
“All our hard work we’ve put in from the last game of the regular season and into the playoffs, it’s helping, the team is molding better,” Brisco said. “We should be able to finish it out.”
Brisco and Williams got their other teammates involved, particularly Sabrina Vitale and Sabrina Clement, who added seven and five points each. Forwards like Clement, Rebecca Oxford and Nalae Crosland were crucial part of the defense inside.
“When Sierra got into foul trouble, me and Taliyah were forced to step up, and we played together as a team.” Williams said. “We were able to bring in all of our other players.”
Green scored six of her 10 points in the first quarter, but foul trouble limited her for much of the second and as Lewis trailed 12-10 early on before Brisco and Williams took over. Williams scored seven of her 18 points in the second quarter to lead Lewis on a 12-3 run to finish the half up 24-18.
Infinity Hammonds’ 18 points on four three-pointers paced Bergtraum.
Brisco carried the load in the third quarter, with eight of her 16 points in the period, and Lewis went up by as many as 18. Williams had six in the final period to keep the Patriots ahead.
“It just shows that it’s not just about Sierra,” Lewis coach Stephen Tsai said. “We’re a deep team, we can play multiple ways and multiple people and everything like that.”
