Bryant never seized the momentum when it had the chance.
“I feel like we could have kept it up and then we came back on defense and just blew it all way,” senior Patricia Badea said.
Each time the sixth-seeded and previously unbeaten Owls crept closer to Curtis it would watch its opponent make a run or a knock down a big shot. A three-point fourth quarter deficit would become a 54-39 season-ending loss to the 10th-seeded Warriors in the PSAL Class A girls basketball semifinals Wednesday night at CCNY.
“I knew that we could [win],” star guard Yarmese Jones said. “We just played a bad, bad game. We haven’t played this bad since January.”
Jones, who scored 16 points, dropped in a layup right before the halftime buzzer to put the Owls (23-1) down just 27-22 at the break. Curtis (19-8) quickly pushed the lead back to nine, but Badea, who tallied 11 points, hit consecutive 3-pointers cut the lead to just 35-32 with 1:15 remaining in the frame.
“I thought the momentum was swinging,” Bryant coach Jim Exarhos said.
Instead it was Curtis, who Exarhos said was better than a No. 10 seed, that started the fourth on an offense blitz. The Warriors ran off 10 straight points, including consecutive 3-pointers from Dana Gildea, to make it 47-32 with 5:26 left in the game. The sharpshooting guard scored 18 points, including five 3-pointers, and point guard Ayo Adedapo tallied a game-high 27 for Curtis. Morniquie Murphy added 11 points for Bryant.
“Our defense just wasn’t rotating today,” Exarhos said. “That’s what killed us.”
The loss ends a memorable season for the Owls and their five seniors. They won an undefeated Queens A West title after going just 6-12 two years ago. A quarterfinal win on the road against Baruch earned the school’s first trip to the semifinals since 1995 and they made a run at the championship game.
“I started crying as soon as I hit the bench,” Badea said. “Then it really hit. We did amazing this year. Nothing is probably going to top this memory for years now.”