South Side turns things around

With the help of their two captains, the South Side girls’ basketball team has rediscovered its game after a mini-slump and is poised for a deep playoff push.

South Side has won five in a row as it enters the final week of the regular season with home games against Division and Plainedge, the top two teams in Conference A-3 that beat the Lady Cyclones in consecutive contests about three weeks ago. Those losses followed a six-game winning streak.

Coach Dan Ferrick knew his team’s mindset wasn’t right following those defeats and that action needed to be taken before the season spiraled out of control. After the Plainedge game, he sat down with co-captains Kelsey Barrett and Erin McElwain for about 25 minutes to plan a course of action in hopes of getting the girls back on track. The two seniors then held a tough-love team meeting to get the rest of the players refocused.

“Before the practice on [Jan. 18], they had a team meeting for about 20-25 minutes,” said coach Dan Ferrick. “They basically called everyone out and from that point on, the girls have to come to work every single day.”

The team responded with a 62-46 home win over Glen Cove on Jan. 19 thanks to a strong outing by Katie McMahon, who had 20 points, eight rebounds, five assists and two blocks and Sydney Rathjen, who added 12 points and 14 rebounds.

That was followed by wins against Roslyn, Hewlett and Bethpage, three hungry teams that are fighting for the final playoff spot in the conference. The Lady Cyclones outscored Roslyn 42-13 in the first half on Jan. 25 and held a 26-7 advantage at the end of the first quarter at Hewlett four days later to cruise to those victories before pulling away from Bethpage on Feb. 1 with an 11-4 fourth quarter.

The run continued with Saturday’s 52-30 win at Roosevelt. Kaitlyn O’Sullivan and Rathjen each had eight points, with the former becoming the sixth Lady Cyclone to either lead or co-lead the team in scoring in a single game this season.

“The best thing about this team is how do you defend it?” Ferrick asked. “Sydney Rathjen versus Hewlett goes for 17 [and] someone else goes for 12 and all the while we’re sharing the ball and everyone’s getting points.”

A conference title is likely out of reach, but Ferrick believes the playoff seeding could be anywhere from fourth to sixth, depending on this week’s results.

“We didn’t give them our best effort the last time,” Ferrick said on the rematches with Division and Plainedge. “If we play our best, we’re good.”

Not surprisingly, Ferrick is optimistic that the Lady Cyclones’ rededication to defense (they have averaged 34 points against during their winning streak) and scoring depth could create problems for any postseason opponent.

“On any given day, I’ll take my top 10 against anyone else’s top 10,” he proclaimed.