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By Joseph Staszewski
Brooklyn Daily
A subdued excitement emanated from the Nazareth girls basketball team. The Lady Kingsmen earned their third straight trip to Albany for the state Federation tournament. It just wasn’t in the classification they were hoping for.
Nazareth, a Class AA team the last two years, topped host Cardinal Spellman 76–53 in the Catholic ‘A’ state final on Saturday. Junior guard Shiclasia Brown, who scored 25 points, was happy with the win, but the disappointment of her team finishing fifth in its division and dropping down to the ‘A’ class still lingered.
“I’m happy we made it to go upstate, but I wish that we would have been AA instead of A, but I’m happy,” Brown said. “At least we get something.”
Freshman Niya Johnson had 16 points and 11 rebounds and Jen Fay chipped in eight points and 14 boards for Nazareth, which also beat Spellman on March 6, 74–58, for the city title. Brown and Johnson have flourished since leading scorer Bianca Cuevas was suspended for the season for fighting.
Nazareth (16–10) kept Spellman at arms length most of the game. The Pilots used an 11–4 third-quarter run to get within 32–22 with 30 seconds left in the first half. Naz answered with a 6-0 spurt capped by two Shalix Hines’s free throws to go up 38–22 into the break.
Spellman (19–9) appeared poised to make one final run in the third quarter, but Fay quickly ended that with a 3-point play. Then Brown hit a trey to end the frame and put Naz up 62–40 after three. The Lady Kingsmen defense held highly recruited Pilots star Maria Backman to a quiet 18 points.
“It lets a lot of people know we are not going away,” Nazareth coach Ron Kelley said. “We are going to be around for a long time.”
The Nazareth girls head to the Times Union Center in Albany to face private school champion Long Island Lutheran at 10 am on March 22. They have to chance to end a difficult year on a high note.
“The season didn’t go exactly that way that we wanted,” Fay said. “Now we just have to make the best of where we are at, play hard and show people we are still a team to be reckoned with.”
Reach reporter Joseph Staszewski at jstaszewski@cnglocal.com. Follow him on twitter @cng_staszewski.