On Tuesday afternoon, in their last game before the Christmas break, the girls’ basketball team defended the home court behind 24 points from Beth Felix. The 43-19 victory over Smithtown Christian leveled the Bears’ record at 2-2 on the season, but the game was anything but a blowout in the early going.

The Bears jumped out to a 3-0 lead behind a free throw and a jumper from Felix, before the Knights lit their side of the scoreboard with a layup. Felix followed with a 3-pointer and Wura Obasanjo banked in a shot from the foul line at the buzzer to give the Brook an 8-2 lead after the opening quarter.

Smithtown registered a 6-0 run to begin the second quarter to knot the game at 8-8. It appeared that a tight defensive battle was on tap for the afternoon, but the Bears unleashed a 12-0 run over the final 2:14 to close the half with a bang. Felix instigated the run with a floater and Elizabeth Robbins followed with a steal and score. Jessica Nwachukwu followed with a layup before Sam Petersen drove and finished a layup despite drawing a foul. Felix then stole the ball off of a Smithtown defensive rebound and hit a layup and Robbins capped the spurt with a beautiful backdoor layup to give the Brook a 20-8 lead at the midway point.

The Knights opened the second half with four straight points, but it was as close as they would get as the Bears imposed their will over the remainder of the game. Felix scored six of the Bears’ eight points in the quarter as they carried a 28-12 advantage into the final period. Over the final eight minutes, the Blue and White outscored the Knights 15-7 thanks to 10 points from Felix.

Felix led all scorers with 24 points and added 7 steals. Nwachukwu (5 points), Petersen (4), Robbins (4), Obasanjo (2), Briana Kilkenny (2), and Rochelle Vassell (2) rounded out the scoring for the Bears.

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