Francesca Santacroce didn’t see it coming.
Not that the Greenport/Southold girls basketball team surprised its red-hot Mattituck counterparts, but the way the team accomplished a 37-32 home victory Thursday night.
The Porters enjoyed as much as a 17-point advantage in the fourth quarter before the Tuckers whittled down the deficit in the Suffolk County League VI matchup.
“I did not expect to get the lead that we did, but I know we deserve it,” said Santacroce, a junior guard who led Greenport with 13 points. “We work so hard every day. I’m really proud of all of us.”
Greenport (4-6, 4-5) has won three of its last four games and hoped that the latest result would be a momentum boost as the team strives to reach the Class B playoffs next month. The Porters snapped the Tuckers (7-6, 6-3) three-game winning streak.
“I think it’s really going to push us for the rest of the season,” said freshman forward Abbi Bednoski. “I think our energy from the game, our win against Pearson last Tuesday [a 55-50 victory] really carried us over when we beat them. It shows us that we can beat anybody in the league.”
The Porters’ prime problem this season has been turnovers. Head coach Ev Corwin said that the team often commits more than 20 a game. The squad stayed true to form with 24 on Thursday, but forced Mattituck to surrender 25.
“We were our own worst enemy,” Corwin said. “Every day we talk about it. The drills that we do. Just smart passes, better passes, stuff like that, I think tonight, for the first time, we’re seeing the fruits of their labor a little bit. I can’t be more proud of them, because they really stepped up.”
Greenport is a young team. Except for senior guard Lindsey Bednoski (two points), Corwin started four underclassmen, including sophomore guards Emily Manwaring (eight points) and Madison Smith (four points).
“You want everything to happen instantaneously,” Corwin said. “To be honest with you, I was questioning whether we were going to snap ourselves out of it just because of the turnovers and stuff. But I really thought that if we could just get on a little roll late this season, we could be tough. These girls are talented. I think we’re one of the deeper teams in the league.”
The Tuckers grabbed a 7-2 lead 2:34 after the opening tipoff but then went ice cold, failing to connect on a basket for the next 18:21.
Porters sophomore guard Isabella Sarabia put away two foul shots, for her only two points of the contest, to snap a 7-7 first quarter tie and Greenport never looked back.
The Porters went on a run, outscoring Mattituck, 18-1, as Abbi Bednoski led the way with six of her nine points.
Mattituck junior guard Claire McKenzie, who finished with a game-high 21 points, recorded the lone point during that run, sinking a free throw with 1:18 remaining in the second quarter. The Tuckers didn’t break the drought until McKenzie went coast-to-coast for a layup with 3:05 left in the third period to close the gap to 20-
The Tuckers sank only 8.6% of their shots (2-of-23) in the opening half but improved to 22% (10-of-46) over all thanks to better second half shooting.
“We had Lindsey and Madison doing a great job defending Claire [McKenzie],” Santacroce said. “It left me open to scrap around with other players and get some tough steals. Those two girls are so tough on defense. They’re really hard to get by.”
The Porters continued to build the lead. Santacroce connected on a trey and then a layup to open the game’s biggest lead at 32-15 with 5:51 remaining.
McKenzie scored nine points during the Tuckers’ fourth quarter run. But her teammates combined for only 11 points in the game.
“One of those nights,” Mattituck head coach Steve Van Dood said. “We did a good job on our defensive assignments. Our goal is to keep [teams] under 10 points in each quarter. But unfortunately for us, not scoring at all. It’s hard, but at least the heart was there. The effort was there.”