OLMA Basketball Handles St. Dominic, 59-43

The girls basketball team had little problem scoring in their 59-43 victory over Nassau-Suffolk CHSAA rival St. Dominic on Tuesday evening, hitting jumpers left and right to secure their first league victory of the season. 

The Mustangs had scored only 48 combined points in their previous two games in consecutive loses to Holy Trinity (46-19) and St. Francis Prep (50-29), so the outburst on offense came as great relief to the girls and coach John Kiffel. 

"They got bummed out at Holy Trinity with that loss, so this puts us back on the right track," Kiffel said. 

Freshman Shannon Brady was a big part of the offensive resurgence - the point guard led the team with 15 points. Brady was not without some help from her girls, however. 

Stephanie Pia provided some spark as her jump-shot from 15-feet out in the first quarter put the girls up 17-7 early on, and her 3-pointer minutes later put the score at 21-8 in favor of the Mustangs. Pia finished with eight points in the game. 

St. Dominic switched early on to the zone defense, and Pia as well as Olivia Walsh were a big part of defeating it. One of the main purpose's of implementing the zone defense is to force the offense to take misguided outside shots - unfortunately for St. Dominic, the Mustang's were finding plenty of opportunities to score, and ultimately capitalized on them.

A jumper by Amanda Walsh made it 38-22 in the third and a breakaway layup by Lehmuller moments later all but sealed the deal for the Mustangs, as they would go on to pick up their first conference win of the season and move to 5-3 overall. 

Records: OLMA (5-3, 1-1 CHSAA), St. Dominic (1-4, 0-1)

Heroes: The offense - Brady had her best game of the season (and arguably of her young career) torching the Bayhawks for 15 points. Olivia Walsh had 10 points and nine rebounds and Amanda Walsh added nine points. 

Turning Point: The first five minutes or so of the game were pretty important for the Mustangs. After doing poorly on offense the past two games, the girls needed to get off to a quick start Tuesday - they did. They hit most of their jump shots early on, allowing them to get off to a quick 9-0 start. That nine point cushion was perhaps comforting for them early on, knowing that they could still hit the bottom of the net. 

Quotable: "It just feels good," Kiffel said. "Being the first league win, it's definitely special."

Bottom Line: The Mustangs' offense came back with a bang Tuesday. Meanwhile, St. Dominic's zone defense and full-court pressure proved to be ineffective against the rejuvenated OLMA offense. 

Key Stat: 17 - the amount of points OLMA scored in the first quarter of Tuesday's game. That is versus the 19 points they scored against Holy Trinity in the entire game. 

Who's Next? OLMA will face Sacred Heart at home Friday at 7:15 p.m.