Coming into his team’s Feb. 16 Class A first round game against Pelham, Harrison girls’ basketball coach Louis Kail knew his Huskies would need to be firing on all cylinders if they hoped to earn their third victory of the year over a tough Pelham team. Luckily for the Harrison faithful, however, the Huskies answered the call, topping the Pelicans 54-50 to advance to the quarterfinals.
Although the No. 4-seeded Huskies had previously earned two regular season wins over their league rivals from Pelham this year, Kail knew full well that the Pelicans would not be a pushover on Thursday night.
“For the last seven years, every time we play Pelham we know it’s going to be a tough game,” Kail said. “They’re a [No.] 13 seed but they could have been a lot higher; they’re well-coached, they’re physical kids and they don’t give up.”
The Huskies built up a 28-20 halftime lead, but Pelham roared back in the fourth, cutting into the deficit and turning what looked like an easy Harrison win into a nail-biter in the finals minutes.
But the Huskies, led by 26 points from standout Avery LaBarbera, held on to deal the Pelicans a season-ending loss.
“I think we settled into the game, our effort increased a little and we did a better job boxing out,” Kail said. “And I think some of our younger kids settled into play hard and they got after it.”
One of those younger players was sophomore Victoria Lendino, who finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds and four steals, while playing a vital role in Harrison’s ability to establish a low-post presence.
“I am so proud of that girl; the way she’s come on in the last two years has been massive,” Kail said. “We don’t win that game without her effort today.”
With the win, the Huskies will move on to the Class AA quarterfinals on Feb. 22, after press time, when they will host No. 21-seeded Nanuet. The Golden Knights came up with a huge first-round upset last week, topping No. 5-seeded Tappan Zee thanks to a great performance from Zoe Almabert, who scored 26 points—including the 1,000th of her career—in the win.
Kail hopes that when his team hits the court this week, they’ll be able to call on some of the lessons they learned from their first-round win over Pelham.
“Everyone has their own journey and nothing has been easy for us this year,” he said. “We’ve had injuries, we’ve been sick, but we’ve battled.
“I’ll take a test any day of the week,” he added. “It helps us get better and we learned a lot about ourselves today.”
