Staff Reports
They played their finest game of the season, but it wasn’t good enough for the Cardinal O’Hara girls basketball team.
The Hawks ended the 2009-10 campaign with a 55-46 loss to Sacred Heart Academy (Long Island) Friday in a state Catholic High School Athletic Association Class B quarterfinal game played at St. Dominic High School on Long Island.
“They were huge. They had three 6-footers on the floor at any time, and they were getting some second-chance shots,” said Cardinal O’Hara coach Dan McDermott, whose Hawks finish the season 11-16 overall.
“I was very happy with the way our kids battled and scrapped with them,” he said. “That was definitely our best game of the year. It just shows what we were up against today.”
The Hawks led 14-12 after the first quarter and were down five at halftime, 29-24. Cardinal O’Hara came out hot, starting the second half on a 6-0 run to take a 30-29 lead.
However, those six points were the only offense the Hawks had in the quarter as Sacred Heart outscored O’Hara 16-6 in the frame to take command.
“They started hitting some shots,” McDermott explained, adding that fatigue may have been another factor. The Hawks left for Long Island at 4 a.m. Friday; their game was 12 hours later.
It also hurt that Cardinal O’Hara played without senior Amanda Lewis, who made the trip but missed the game for personal reasons. She was one of the Hawks’ top defensive guards. In addition, while Cardinal O’Hara has approximately 125 girls in the school, Sacred Heart’s enrollment is around 800.
City of Tonawanda resident Leah McDonell led O’Hara with 19 points, giving her 414 for the season, which McDermott believes is a freshman school record.
Kayla Brown and Chakia Crawford both added nine points for the Hawks. Taylor Higgins’ 16 points led three Sacred Heart players in double figures.
Sacred Heart will play Brooklyn’s Fontbonne Hall Academy in today’s semifinals.
