Copiague Knocks Ward Melville Girls Out of Playoffs

Beating a team to whom they'd previously lost a 24-point game was already going to be a challenge, but early foul trouble and cold shooting plagued the Patriots on Monday night, and Copiague came away with a 49-36 win in a Suffolk Class AA playoff game.

Junior Megan Murtagh picked up three fouls in the first four minutes – some of them accompanied by loud, disapproving comments from the Patriot crowd. She headed to the bench, where she watched her team fall behind by 12 points in the first half. Without Murtagh, who had been averaging 14 rebounds per game, Copiague killed any possibility Ward Melville had for second-chance shots.

"They're a smart team," Ward Melville coach Lawrence Combs said. "They recognized she was a big factor in the middle."

When Murtagh returned in the second half, she immediately had an impact, pulling down rebounds and forcing turnovers down low. Ward Melville looked ready to contend after Murtagh sank a pair of freethrows that cut Copiague's lead to 33-28 midway through the third. But Domyae Ivory-Byrd scored six points for Copiague during an 11-0 run which followed.

"I knew that [getting in foul trouble] would hurt the team and I felt bad," Murtagh said. "For the time that I was in, I wanted to make an impact."

Copiague coach Carole Olsen said it was actually Ward Melville's leading scorer, Caysea Cohen, who was their defensive focus, and not Murtagh. But getting those calls certainly helped, especially since Cohen still managed to have a hand in what seemed like nearly every play.

"We knew they had the outside shooters and they were athletic. We knew we had to control that," said Olsen, whose team beat Ward Melville 53-29 back in December. Copiague (13-6, 9-5) advances to play top-seeded Northport on Thursday.

For Ward Melville (9-8, 9-5), Cohen finished with 10 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and five steals.

"She's what helps propel us," Combs said.

For Copiague, it was senior Chelsea Williams who did the propelling. She got around Ward Melville's defense with ease, finishing with 22 points. Williams left the game briefly, hopping off the court with a pained look on her face after a battle under the net around two minutes into the fourth quarter. She was gone about two minutes, during which Ward Melville's Carly Lombardo sank a three-pointer that closed the gap to 10 points. But as soon as Williams was back she responded with a trey of her own that gave Copiague a little more room with a 47-34 lead.

"She knows basketball and she knew how to get around us," Murtagh said of Williams. "She was a major factor today."

Williams will graduate later this year, but most of Ward Melville's starters won't. Murtagh, Cohen, Vanessa Pryor (9 points), and Kim Geiger are juniors. Despite a collective 28 percent shooting effort, Combs complimented his team for holding Copiague below 50 points and said he's looking forward to next year, when he expects the team to be a contender for the League I title. That crown went to Sachem East this year, a team Ward Melville beat on Feb. 4.

"That's something positive you can take out of this," Combs said.

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