By Bill Landon
A freshman paired up with one of the oldest members on the team to take down a crosstown rival.
Jillian Meaney and Gabby Horman scored 16 points each in Smithtown West’s 55-41 home win over Smithtown East Jan. 27.
Trailing by two early in the first quarter, Meaney hit a pair of three-pointers to put her team back in front, 9-8, after three minutes of play. Tied 11-11 tie at the end of eight minutes, Smithtown West stretched the lead behind a strong performance by Horman, who battled in the paint to help her team outscore its opponent 23-6 before the halftime break. Horman spent quality time at the free-throw line too, scoring seven of eight charity points, and adding a field goal, for her team to take a 34-17 advantage into the locker room.
“We knew that East was coming in strong because this is a big game for them and a big game for us,” Meaney said. “We had a lull at first, but we pulled together and we pulled out strong.”
Smithtown East junior Ceili Williams hit a field goal and followed it with a three-pointer, and freshman Kate Cosgrove also drained a long-distance shot to chip away at the deficit, but Smithtown West Senior Sarah Harrington had other ideas.
“We had to push hard — we knew their defense and we had to try to break their press — but I guess they showed up a little better than us today,” Williams said. “Every game is important, but if we could’ve beaten West, that would be the icing on the cake.”
Harrington answered with a three-pointer of her own to put her team out front, 41-27, to begin the final quarter of play.
“We’ve been playing with them since the third grade, so we know who they have,” Harrington said. “It’s just a matter of who wants it more, and I have a lot of confidence in my team. We hit a lot of our shots and we rebounded well.”
Speaking of rebounds, Horman had 25 before fouling out early in the quarter.
Smithtown East looked to capitalize on the opportunity, and took the inside game away from its opponent.
“Defensively, we had a game plan to come back to the taller girls on their team,” Smithtown East head coach Tom Vulin said. “ I thought we did a great job in the first quarter, but it got away from it in the second. We sent Gabby Horman to the line a bunch of times [and that hurt us].”
Smithtown East senior Tori Redmond, who also recorded a game-high 16 points in the game, had the hot hand late. She hit four straight field goals, and classmate Jordi DeBernardo swished a trey to make it a 9-point game, but the team would come no closer.
“Gabby [Horman] and Sarah [Harrington] are very good players — they both have height and we did a poor job of boxing them out later in the game,” Redmond said. “Then we got Gabby in foul trouble and that was [our opening].”
Smithtown West head coach Katie Combs was confident in her team’s ability to get the job done despite the foul out.
“Our girls are resilient,” she said. “They never give up, and every night a different person steps up. Tonight it was Jill Meaney [and] Lauren Soriano [who] hit some three’s when we really needed them.”
Smithtown West sophomore Garbrianna Lorefice knocked down a free throw, field goal and three-pointer, and Meaney netted five more points to put the game away. Soriano scored 11 points and Lorefice finished with nine.
Redmond said the rival game stands as an important test.
“We did better on defense later in the game, but our shots weren’t falling,” she said. “It’s important to us we’re always competitive when we play them. It’s a lot of fun.”
With the win, Smithtown West improves to 9-5 overall and 8-2 in League III, while East falls to 4-12 and 4-6. Smithtown West is tied with Huntington for the No. 2 spot in the league, behind Copiague. The team hits the road to take on Babylon Jan. 31 at 4 p.m. Smithtown East hosts Centereach Jan. 31 at 5:45 p.m.
“We have four games left before the playoffs, Combs said. “And we’ve got to take care of business.”
