It took extra time, but the girls basketball team made Valentine’s Day a little sweeter by clinching the League VIII Championship outright over second place Pierson/Bridgehampton (8-3) with a 49-41 victory over Southold. Playing without Natalie Istrati, sidelined with a stress fracture, the girls knew it would be a vastly different game than the 50-25 beating they handed the Settlers on January 18. The first quarter signaled it would be a tighter contest as it was evenly matched and ended in an 11-11 deadlock. Scoring was difficult to come by in the second frame and Southold won the period 5-2 to take a three-point edge into the break. The Bears battled back with a 16-11 third quarter, eclipsing their entire first half point total to take a two-point advantage into the pivotal period.

The Brook still clung to a slim three-point lead with 30 seconds left in the fourth, but a Southold trifecta sent the game into overtime. In the five-minute extra period, the Bear offense finally clicked into gear as they outscored the Settlers 12-4. Brannon Burke (20 points) and Jess Winston (16 points) came up huge in Istrati’s absence, combining for 8 of 10 free throws in overtime to seal the win. Danielle Pappas came up with a huge 8 points, tying her season high, and Ariana Odom chipped in 5. Additionally, Burke’s scoring performance put her over the 1,000-point mark for her career, our first girls basketball player to accomplish the milestone since Sadie Singer last season.

The Bears wrap up their regular season at home on Wednesday vs. Mercy.

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