Hadnagy helps Farmingdale steal semi win

Nadine Hadnagy plays lacrosse in the spring and basketball in the winter. Considering what she did with 18 seconds left in Farmingdale's nail-biter against Uniondale, she should maybe cast her eye toward football in the fall.

Making like a cornerback jumping a route in the flat, Hadnagy intercepted a crosscourt pass along the sideline approaching midcourt for a breakaway layup to give No. 2 Farmingdale a 40-37 win in the Nassau Class AA girls basketball semifinal at Oyster Bay.

The basket snapped a 10-2 Uniondale run and a field goal drought of 4:18 for the Dalers, who led 23-14 at the half.

Farmingdale advances to play No. 1 Baldwin, Saturday at 4 p.m. at C.W. Post in the county final.

"I saw it coming," Hadnagy, a sophomore, said. "The ball was going there and I went for it. It was redemption for my foul shot."

Redemption, because Hadnagy missed the front end of a one-and-one with 1:04 left to play. Farmingdale led 38-35 at the time, but Aliyah McDonald's hooking layup drew the Knights to within one with 55 seconds left. Six-seeded Uniondale missed a foul shot to tie the game and, seconds later, nearly took the lead on an inbounds to an unguarded player in the paint, but called a timeout just before the pass.

"We took awhile to get it in," Uniondale coach Danielle Nicol said. "He was about to say five ."

SEE PHOTOSFarmingdale 40, Uniondale 37

Uniondale (10-10) came out flat in the early going but showed life in the opening minutes of the third quarter, scoring the first six points on two layups by Jayda Hyatt and a driving layup from Sakara Hester-Torres.

Kelly McPartland then scored six of her 16 points to single-handedly give the Dalers the 29-20 lead. Up 34-22 to kick off the fourth, Uniondale pressed again. This time, stringing together a 13-4 run to make it 36-35. Colleen Reynolds hit two free throws to snap the skid for Farmingdale (18-1) with 1:54 to play.

McPartland chipped in 12 rebounds, while Kyra Ochwat had 13 points.

Hadnagy had five steals for Farmingdale.

Uniondale threatened in the final second, attempting the game-tying trey from the right wing that fell short.

"We switched it up from zone to man-to-man," McPartland said. "They're quick on their feet . . . it was a close one."

Closer, still, until Hadnagy showed off her cornerback capabilities.

Pick-two, for the win.