Nora Gabel’s 50 points lead Comsewogue over Centereach
Nora Gabel of Comsewogue poses for a portrait during Newsday's 2017-18 girls basketball season preview photo shoot at company headquarters in Melville on Dec. 4, 2017. Credit: James Escher
Nora Gabel said she can be a streaky shooter. She wasn’t Tuesday night.
The 5-8 senior guard scored 50 points, including 20 in the fourth quarter, in host Comsewogue’s 75-58 win over Centereach in a non-league girls basketball game.
In a 51-44 game after three quarters, each of Gabel’s 50 points were needed to outlast a Centereach team that cut the deficit to four points in the fourth quarter. Gabel hit the half-century mark on a layup inside a minute to play.
“In the beginning, I was hitting a lot of threes and then they started to play man,” Gabel said. “We had a good iso play. I just kept driving, and I either got fouled or got easy layups.”
Gabel shot 16 of 23 from the free-throw line and made six three-pointers. Comsewogue coach Joe Caltagirone said she was integral to the win.
“We needed all the points that she had in her,” he said.
Gabel, one of Newsday’s top 25 girls basketball players to watch this winter, is approaching 1,500 points, according to Caltagirone.
With a few more nights even half as good as this one, she could get there in short order.
