By Rob Potter
FALLSBURG — It’s been a awhile since Fallsburg beat Livingston Manor in a girls’ basketball game. So having to wait out a late rally by the visiting Lady Wildcats didn’t bother Lady Comets Coach Daniel Redmond after his team held on for a 51-45 victory last Wednesday night.
“I’m very pleased, this is the first time in four seasons that we have defeated Manor,” Redmond said. “We had a balanced scoring attack tonight. All of our players did well.”
For most of the game, Fallsburg held the lead, but with 3:33 remaining in the fourth quarter, Manor’s Monay Allen grabbed an offensive rebound and scored to bring her team to within a point at 44-43.
But Sheryl Pinder and Shanice Mack answered with consecutive baskets in the next minute to extend the Lady Comets’ lead to 48-43.
Allen made it a 48-45 game when she made a layup with 51 seconds to go.
With 16 seconds remaining, Mack made the first shot of a 1-and-1 at the foul line. Mack missed her second shot, but teammate Kelsey Moody grabbed the rebound and scored to give Fallsburg (3-3) the final six-point advantage.
“Defensively, we played very well tonight,” Redmond said. “We were able to get some steals and get points off of them.”
Indeed, the Lady Comets’ efforts on defense helped them take a 12-9 lead at the end of the first quarter that grew to 21-9 midway through the second period.
Moody led the Lady Comets with a double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds. She also blocked two shots and had a steal. Celia Garcia had 12 points, eight steals, three rebounds and two assists. Mack recorded 12 points and five steals, while Pinder finished with 11 points and six steals.
Despite trailing for most of the game, Manor (1-2) kept playing hard and trying to rally. In the final minute of the third quarter, Imani Miranda scored six points to help the Lady Wildcats pull to within four points at 39-35.
“We settled down and played better in the second half,” Manor Coach Kevin Clifford said. “We came out kind of flat in the first half. I think we were a little rattled by their defense.”
Allen and Samantha Scott led the Lady Wildcats with 11 points apiece.
“We’ll keep working to improve,” Clifford said. “We’re still a young team. We have three starters – Monay Allen, Maggi Calo and Victoria Davis – who saw a lot of playing time last year and Samantha Scott got some playing time last year. But the rest of our players were on the JV team last year."