Smithtown Christian girls fall at state Class D Regional final
Smithtown's Abby Loiacono scored 28 points despite being double- and triple-teamed by Oxford Academy on Saturday, March 11, 2023. Credit: Allyse Pulliam
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — They came in waves. One after the other, 11 Oxford Academy girls basketball players rotated on and off the court and applied full court pressure to the Smithtown Christian offense.
“They were so athletic and just wore us down in the second half,” said Smithtown Christian coach Joe Loaicono. “We hung in there and gave it our best shot through a relatively competitive first half and then it caught up to us in the third quarter.”
Point guard Madalyn Barrows scored a team-high 26 points and Oxford used a big third quarter to beat Smithtown Christian, 70-44, in a state Class D girls basketball Southeast Regional final at Visions FCU Arena.
Oxford outscored Smithtown Christian 26-11 in the third quarter and the Knights never recovered. Oxford used a 14-2 run to take a 38-15 lead midway through the third quarter. Owford will move on to the state semifinal at 10:45 a.m. Saturday at Hudson Valley CC.
Smithtown Christian finished 9-13 and Loiacono said the experience was worth the more than four-hour bus ride to Binghamton,
“Some of our girls had never stayed in a hotel overnight,” he said with a laugh. “This was an outstanding life experience for them. We were basically playing in front of a large and loud hometown crowd against a very good Oxford team. The atmosphere in the big arena was fantastic. I’m very proud of our effort.”
Oxford (17-5) ran subs in and out of the game, keeping defenders fresh and using double and triple teams on Smithtown Christian’s leading scorer Abby Loiacono.
“They knew they had to find a way to stop Abby to win,” Loiacono said. “And they were relentless on defense.”
Despite constant attention from the swarming, defensive pressure, Abby Loiacono still found a way to lead all scorers with 28 points.
“We lose Abby to graduation, but we bring back the other four starters in our lineup,” Loiacono said. “We had an eighth-grader, two sophomores and a junior out there with Abby and they held their own.”
Barrows, who had 10 points in the first half, added 10 more in the decisive third quarter.
“She was a great player and we had trouble stopping her,” Loiacono said. “We basically play only six players for the majority of the game and we got tired.”
Junior Bryn Jansson had nine points and eighth-grader Annalyn Loiacono added seven for the Knights.
Gregg Sarra is Newsday's high school sports editor and has been on the beat since the mid-1980s.
