The Massapequa Girls Basketball team showed why they're the top seed in the Class AA Playoffs.
The Chiefs started their playoff run with an impressive quarterfinal win over Freeport 75-43.
The win puts the undefeated Massapequa, 16-0, into the semifinals against Mac Arthur next week at Garden City High School.
It was a fact-paced, hard-hitting, and intense game that saw Massapequa pull out ahead from the opening buzzer and stay there for the duration of the encounter.
Among stand-outs were senior Morgan Roessler with 19 points; freshman Melanie Hingher who scored 13 points; senior Danielle Doherty had 11 points; and senior Lauren Van Buren finished with 10 points.
Coach Shari Roessler, said the Chiefs simply wore Freeport down.
“We’ve played them two times, and we really relied on our depth to win,” she said. “We feel that if we push the ball, push the ball, and keep running, eventually we’ll wear them down.”
But she credited the Devils with making the Chiefs earn their points.
“We had a few turnovers, but we do a good job fundamentally,” she said. “We just played a lot of good team ball...we have a lot of depth. They did a nice job of shutting down our inside, but some of the guards stepped up and took some nice shots, got some nice baskets. I would consider us a true team.”
Morgan Roessler the 5-foot-10 senior said that the Chiefs’ previous victories over Freeport cemented their resolve and boost their confidence leading into their rematch this evening.
“We knew coming in that we had beat them by like, 40 points last week, so we just wanted to come in and do the same thing,” she said. “We just had to keep up the same intensity.”
Last year Massapequa lost in the Nassau County Championships to Baldwin. However, Roessler is certain that 2013 will be the year that the Massapequa tastes victory.
“We just have to keep practicing,” she said. “We know a little bit about the two teams that we might be playing against, so it should be a good game.”
