Wantagh Girls Basketball Season Ends with Quarterfinal Loss to Lynbrook

One of the major keys for Wantagh to defeat Lynbrook in Tuesday's Class A girls basketball quarterfinal game was to contain Brooke Gerstman. 

The senior guard instead showed why she is one of the top girls basketball players on Long Island with a game-high 33 points along with five steals to bring Lynbrook back from an eight-point third quarter deficit in a 57-50 home win over Wantagh.  

"That's probably the player of the year, playing as a senior on their home court - she doesn't want to lose," said Wantagh head coach Stan Bujacich. "That's a tough challenge for us."

Shannon Baker added 10 points and Danielle Amaya grabbed 12 rebounds for third-seeded Lynbrook (14-4), while Tara Basile scored 13 points and Demi Valenti added 10 points for sixth-seeded Wantagh (13-6). The win advances Lynbrook to the Class A semifinals against either Garden City or Bethpage. 

"I think that at times we were down and they got momentum, we just stuck together and pulled it out as a team," Gerstman said.

The first two quarters were a back and forth affair. With the game tied at 32 early in the third, Valenti nailed a jumper to give Wantagh the lead, 34-32. Turnovers by Lynbrook would allow Wantagh to lead by as much as eight points.

The Owls, however, would come right back with Gerstman leading the charge. The senior made a last second lay up to end the third quarter, cutting the Wantagh lead to 44-40.

"We knew it was going to come from defense and rebounding," Gerstman said of the second half surge. "Offense is going to come once we put up defense."

It was in the fourth quarter where Gerstman really got to work. She made a lay up to give Lynbrook the lead by two, and then nailed back to back three-pointers to give the Owls a 54-46 lead with 2:20 left in the game. Gerstman scored a total of eight straight points in a stretch of two minutes.

Wantagh, however, had trouble hitting the shots they did in the first half, missing several second and third chance opportunities. The Lady Warriors were also without 6’3” center Alex Parlato for most of the third quarter as she got in foul trouble.

"I give my bench a lot of credit, they played well the whole year," Bujacich said. "We had the ball, down 54-50, and we just missed a couple of shots here."