Lady Golden Tornadoes Can't Hold Back Owls, 56-42

The Lady Golden Tornadoes had trouble containing Lynbrook's biggest offensive threat, Brooke Gerstman, on Friday night.

The Lady Owls' star guard maneuvered through the Golden Tornadoes defense with ease, scoring a game-high 27 points.

"We were able to hang around and fought back somewhat in the end, but [Gerstman] took over and solidified the game for them," said Lawrence Coach George Klein.

Score: Lynbrook 56-Lawrence 42

Heroes: Gabbie Golan, Natalie Leger and Farrah Desvarieux were the top three scorers for Lawrence. Golan had 11 points followed by Leger with 10. Desvarieux had nine points off of four field goals.

Turning Point: Junior Taylor Brady hit a big 3-point shot midway through the fourth quarter to cut the Owls' lead to eight points, 48-40. This is when Gerstman began to hit her stride and scored the next couple of points to stretch the lead back out to 12. The Golden Tornadoes were only able to manage one more basket for the game. 

Quotable: "They are a very good team that is well coached," Klein said. "They have a nice mix of size to go along with their guard play." He added, "We started out slow shooting the ball but were able to hang around and fought back in the fourth quarter. We need to be more consistent with our shooting throughout the whole game."

Bottom Line: The Lady Owls got out to a big lead and made it difficult for Lawrence to get back in the game despite a valiant effort in the fourth quarter. The Lady Golden Tornadoes gave up too many easy baskets inside the paint and need to shore up their defense better underneath in future games to make a dent in the conference standings. Currently Lawrence is in fourth place with a 5-3 conference record. Lynbrook improved to 5-2 in league play.

Who's Next:  Sewanhaka on Friday at 4:30 p.m.