Deavion Peterson scores all 11 points in final 10 minutes to boost Freeport

Deavion Peterson #3 of Freeport, left, gets pressured by Gina Contorno #3 of Oceanside during a Nassau Conference AA-I girls basketball game at Oceanside High School on Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019. Credit: James Escher
Deavion Peterson always plays at 100 percent.
“I’m just hungry for the ball,” she said. “Hungry for getting the basket. Hungry for being a team player.”
She was satiated in the second half.
The flashy senior guard willed visiting Freeport back from an 11-point third-quarter deficit, scoring all 11 of her points in the final 10 minutes as the Red Devils outlasted Oceanside, 58-54, in a Nassau AA-I girls basketball game on Tuesday night.
“She only has one speed, and it’s 100,” Freeport coach Meredith Jones said. “She goes all out, all the time. She’s so quick. There are hardly any other players who are as quick as she is but also as good with the ball.”
Oceanside (2-6) led 34-23 after Jamie Behar’s long three-pointer from the top of the arc with 5:32 left in the third quarter, but that’s when Freeport came alive.
The Red Devils capped the period on a 15-2 run — punctuated by Peterson’s first five points of the contest — for a 38-36 lead. Her three-pointer from the right wing with 47 seconds before the horn gave Freeport (9-1) its first lead since early in the second quarter.
Behar (18 points) opened the fourth quarter with a baseline drive and dish inside to Gina Contorno (18 points), who finished and tied the score at 38. Yulianna Frometa Gomez (six points) then scored off the glass for a 40-38 Freeport advantage.
The Red Devils held the lead from there, but Oceanside kept threatening in what coach Jared Stoler called one of his team’s best efforts this season.
Gabby Modzelewski’s three-point play with 5.1 seconds remaining narrowed the Freeport lead to 57-54. The Sailors intentionally fouled with 2.3 seconds remaining, sending Tiona Parker (nine points) to the free-throw line.
Freeport, which shot 4-for-16 from the stripe, erupted when Parker recovered from a miss on the first attempt to make the second, sealing the win.
“We made the one that put us up four, and that was the one I cared about the most,” Jones said.
The resilient comeback started with an increased emphasis on a trap defense that forced Oceanside into back-breaking turnovers. Much of that started with Peterson, who dove into the first row to save a loose ball midway through the fourth quarter that resulted in a Freeport basket and led the front line of the press.
“Defense is our offense,” said Taylor Abraham, who had 14 points. “She gets a steal and we all just run.