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ARDSLEY, N.Y. Ursulines Kathleen Battke had made four three pointers and had 14 points in the first half of Thursdays game against Somers. Then her opponent switched to a defense that cooled off her hot hand.
Thats something, as a B coach, I dont think Ive ever faced defensively, Ursuline head coach Kathleen Kern said.
Somers defeated Ursuline, 47-41, at Ardsley High School in the first round of a three-day tournament to honor Ardsleys longtime athletic director, Hank Roth. On Saturday, Somers will play the winner of Fridays Ardsley vs. Eastchester matchup in the championship game while Ursuline will play the loser in the consolation game.
Somers girls basketball head coach Kate Kadlubowski recognized that her teams offense was not in rhythm on Thursday. Fortunately, the defense shut down her opponent in the second half.
I think we played a really good half-court defense, Kadlubowski said. Thats the only thing that kept us alive today.
After Bettke, the freshman guard, rattled off 14 points in the first half, Kadlubowski decided to switch to a box-and-one defense and Bettke never scored for the rest of the game.
Ursuline kept the game close late but missed a free throw down 43-39 with 50 seconds remaining. That shot would have made the score 43-40 and allowed Ursuline to play straight defense, but instead it had to foul and Somers made its free throws to ice the game.
Ursuline jumped out to an early lead, but Somers rallied to take an 18-13 lead midway through the second quarter. Ursuline had a 25-22 lead as the final seconds ticked away in the first half, but a three pointer by Somers tied the game going into the break.
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