Yesterday evening, the girls’ basketball team gave a sweet sendoff to our trio of seniors with a dominant 71-36 win over rival Portledge in the Bears’ final regular season home game in Swanson Gymnasium. The win also gave the Bears a third consecutive undefeated outright PSAA regular season title. They close the regular season with a 19-2 record, the best since the 2009-10 team went 19-1, with their only two losses coming by four points in non-league games without Jocelyn McCrain in the lineup. They now look ahead to next week’s PSAA tournament where they will have the top seed for the third straight year.

Yesterday, seniors Meaghan Doherty, Emma Cohen, and Mairead Reitzel started together and wasted little time in building a lead. The Bears connected on their first three 3-point attempts as Doherty drilled a pair before McCrain splashed one from the left wing. The Panthers hit their third 3-pointer of the frame to pull back within 9-17, but a Payton Martin jumper, a coast-to-coast layup from McCrain, and a Doherty drive and layup in the closing seconds gave The Brook a 23-11 lead after one. Doherty’s 10 points paced the Bears over the first eight minutes.

The Panthers opened the second frame with their fourth 3-pointer and a foul line jumper to trim their deficit back to 16-23 and looked poised to battle for a share of the regular season title. Instead, the Bear defense bit down and fueled a 26-0 game-breaking run. The Blue & White stole the ball eight times in the frame, leading to numerous fast break layups as the hosts built a commanding 47-16 lead at the half. The Bears were a delight to watch during the run as their synchronicity allowed every player to make an impact. The sequence that perhaps best illustrated their teamwork came when Cassandra Rohan blocked a Portledge layup and sent a beautiful outlet pass to Abby Smith who fed Doherty for an open layup, all in a span of three seconds. Pure basketball. Doherty led all scorers at the break with 20.

Rohan hit a pair of free throws to open the third, capping the 26-0 surge to give the Bears their first 30-point advantage of the night. The impressive run was reminiscent of the defensive performance the Bears put on the last time Portledge visited Swanson. In last year’s PSAA semifinal match-up the Bears held the Panthers without a single point until 5:35 remained in the fourth quarter in a 44-8 victory. Four Bears scored in the third as the Bears carried a 60-23 lead into the fourth on the way to the 35-point win.

Doherty’s 27 points led all scorers. Her 20.7 ppg leads all Long Island private school players and her 3 three-pointers gave her 60 on the season to leave her only one behind North Babylon’s Jasmine McKay for the Long Island lead. Rohan tallied 17 points as the Panthers had no answer for her size and agility under the hoop. Smith was sensational on both sides of the ball. Her relentless defense was the tip of the spear for the Bears as she nabbed 8 of the team’s 14 steals, feeding numerous fast break layups to Doherty and McCrain while notching 13 points of her own. McCrain (9) and Martin (5) rounded out the Blue & White attack.

The Bears are back on the Swanson hardwood on Wednesday in a PSAA semifinal match-up against the likely #4 seed, Solomon Schechter.

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