St. John’s Prep quickly realized that last season is over with.
The Red Storm ran through CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens Division II undefeated, winning an undefeated diocesan championship last year. Any chance for a repeat of that feat ended Friday night.
St. John Prep, though returning three starters from that team, looked far different from the squad it was a year ago in its season opener, falling 49-47 to much improved St. Saviour in CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens girls basketball in Astoria.
“We were too cocky from last year,” said star junior guard Lashonda Hathorne, who was held to just 11 points, including none in the fourth quarter. “Everyone thinks the game is going to come easy, but it’s not. They obviously wanted to beat us. We have to try harder.”
St. John’s Prep (0-1) looked like itself during a quick 8-2 spurt that opened up a 38-32 lead with less than two minutes left in the third quarter, highlighted by a Lauren Roeder 3-pointer and a Hawthorne jumper. But in the fourth it was much like the first half.
Shots didn’t fall, turnovers were too prevalent and rebounds were hard to come by against Pandas center Alyson Caiazzo, who scored 26 points and grabbed 15 rebounds.
“We can’t be too confident,” guard Anna Christodoulou said. “We have to put our mind to it and play how we play.”
Added Hathorne, who faced a box-and 1 at times: “I think we are too excited to shoot the ball. Everyone just wanted theirs.”
Without Christodoulou, who came off the bench last season, the Red Storm wouldn’t have been in position to win. She scored a team-high 22 points and connected on three 3-pointers.
She played fearless in the fourth quarter. She went coast-to-coast after a steal, drew a foul and made one of two free throws to pull St. John’s Prep within 44-43 with 2:39 and banked in a 3-pointer to cut the St. Saviour (2-0) lead to two with six seconds left. Caiazzo missed two free throws and fouled Roeder with four seconds remaining. She was unable to connect on either, but Christodoulou’s last-ditch 3-pointer hit was off target.
“I told my team was I going to make two 3-pointers for them,” she said. “The first one went in. I thought we got it.”
What the St. John’s Prep had was an early indication that this season is a new one and it will need to find last season’s form.
“Overall it was a bad game,” Hathorne said. “We didn’t play like a team.”