St. Anthony's girls nipped by Nazareth

Micki Impellizeri was fighting back tears while speaking and Kerrin Maurer wiped them away before talking. The lone seniors on St. Anthony's played big roles in turning the Friars into a powerhouse and were seconds away from pulling off a huge upset.

St. Anthony's led nationally ranked Nazareth with nine seconds left, but was unable to pull out the win in a 46-44 loss Saturday in a state CHSAA Class AA semifinal at St. Dominic. Nazareth (27-3), which is ranked No. 12 nationally by USA Today, will play Christ the King in the final at 4 p.m. Sunday at Holy Trinity.

Symone Kelly had 15 points, nine rebounds, and four steals, Impellizeri had nine points, 10 rebounds, and four steals and Maurer added eight points for St. Anthony's (25-3). "A lot of people weren't expecting us to hang with them as well as we did," Impellizeri said. "I'm very proud of my team. We just couldn't keep it together in the end."

Taylor Ford (14 points) scored on a layup off a pass from West Virginia-bound Bra'Shey Ali with 1:27 left in the game to give Nazareth a 42-40 lead. Maurer hit a jumper with 1:14 left to tie it at 42 and Kelly hit a baseline jumper with 37 seconds left to give the Friars a 44-42 lead.

Maurer forced a steal on the ensuing end with 13 seconds left and Rebecca Musgrove was fouled with nine seconds left. Musgrove missed the front end of a 1-and-1. Ford grabbed the rebound, fed Darius Faulk, who is from Hempstead, and she passed to Ali under the basket for a layup with four seconds left to tie it at 44.

St. Anthony's had the inbounds pass intercepted by Faulk, who was fouled. She hit both free throws with 1.3 seconds left for the winning points.

"We had something going where we were trying to get the ball upcourt as far as possible," St. Anthony's coach Ken Parham said. "They're so athletic. They cover so much territory. Any kind of air under a pass, they run it down. They're aggressive and they did a great job. There were a lot of things we're able to do against a lot of teams that we weren't able to against them."

SEE PHOTOSNazareth 46, St. Anthony's 44

Said Impellizeri: "We had a play and they threw us off. I was just looking for whoever was open so we could get a shot off."

Ford said Nazareth was anticipating the pass. "We knew they were going to do that," Ford said. "We sat back a little bit because we knew they would throw that. It's like a movie. Nine seconds left down by two and all of a sudden all this good stuff happens."

Syracuse-bound Tiffany Jones hit two three-pointers in the fourth quarter and freshman Bianca Cuevas hit a three with 2:57 left to give Nazareth a 40-37 lead.

"Tiffany hit big threes in the corner," Parham said. "You don't expect the 6-4 girl to hit threes like that. When you're winning a game with four seconds left, you don't expect to lose. That's how good they are. That's how quickly they change things around."

Maurer knew Nazareth was favored, but had no doubt the Friars could win. "We worked all season to get this far," she said. "We knew player for player they were a better team, but as a team we were better. We knew if we could hustle as hard as we could we might come out with a win and I guess it wasn't our day."

It was a memorable season for the Friars, who won their first L.I. CHSAA title since 1988 and went undefeated in league. They graduate just two players.

"We had a great season," Kelly said. "It's only going to get better from here. We'll be back."