Rocco Sellitto doesn’t have a conclusive diagnosis for his team’s fourth-quarter struggles. The Bishop Kearney girls basketball coach, a foot and ankle doctor, can’t put his finger on why his team can look so crisp and intense for three quarters and forget what brought it success in the game’s final minutes.
“I’m at a loss to figure it out,” Sellitto said. “We stop running our offense. If we run our offense we can compete with any team.”
That is exactly what the Tigers did against Bishop Ford, trailing by just one point early in the fourth quarter. Then came the turnovers in their halfcourt offense, forced drives into the lane and Falcons transition that lead to an eventual 60-51 loss to the host team in CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens Division I girls basketball Wednesday night. It was the fourth time in two weeks Kearney let a lead slip away in the final quarter.
“We just seem to stop what we are doing the whole game in the fourth quarter,” junior forward Taylor Raccuglia said. “We are doing everything right. We are just not doing it when we are supposed to.”
The Tigers (7-5, 0-6) were doing all the things needed to beat Ford. They handled their opponent’s press thanks to the poise of Meaghan McGoorty, who scored 11 points and grabbed six rebounds, and point guard Jaclyn Grasso. They held their own the boards and forced the Falcons to beat them from the perimeter with a 2-3 zone.
Ford (12-1, 5-1) led 25-15 early in the second quarter, but behind Sam Retas and Raccuglia Kearney trailed by just four at the half. Retas, who scored 24 points and grabbed seven rebounds, connected on a layup that got her team within just 39-38 heading into the fourth. The Tigers, though, connected on just one 3-pointer, a staple of their attack, in the game.
Kearney had a chance to take its first lead but Raccuglia, who had nine points and 10 boards, missed a layup with seconds left in the third quarter and McGoorty missed two free throws to start the fourth. The senior’s putback made it 41-40 with 5:36 left in the game, before Shayra Brown sparked a 9-0 Ford run that put the game out of reach. Kearney attempted to press to get back into the game, but the Falcons proved too quick.
“I think when we started pressing, we started getting tired,” Retas said. “We just started to wear out.”
The last two weeks, while filled with plenty of frustration for Kearney, has shown the Tigers exactly where their stands right now in Brooklyn/Queens. They have been close to victories with all of the league’s top teams outside of Christ the King. The problem is just collecting a few of them.
“We wanted this game so bad to prove we can do it,” Raccuglia said. “We are right there. We just have to figure out what we are doing wrong.”