Carolyn Gallagher called it nothing out of the ordinary. Molloy coach Tom Catalanotto called it tremendous. No matter how you saw it the one thing you could describe Gallagher’s performance as was downright important.
“It felt like the ball just kept coming to me,” the sophomore forward said. “I wasn’t doing anything special. I just was jumping. They really weren’t boxing out. I just took the opportunity and got the rebound.”
Gallagher scored 13 of her 19 points and grabbed the bulk of her 16 boards during a big third quarter to lead Molloy to what she called a must win over Bishop Loughlin, 57-40, in CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens Division I girls basketball in Briarwood Monday afternoon.
“She has a nose for the ball,” Catalanotto said.
It was a big day for the Stanners forwards. Dallas Pralle dropped in 12 points and corralled six boards and Elizabeth (Gurt) Lynch had eight points, nine rebounds and six assists. Star guard Amani Tatum chipped in 10 points and Alexa (Weasel) Dietrich had eight points and five assists. Aliyah Alston and Chelsea Gibson led Loughlin with nine points each.
“They were worried a lot about the point guards, so they started to double team a lot and left a lot of forwards for easy layups,” Pralle said.
Gallagher did plenty of work to get some of those points and control the glass. Molloy (7-6, 3-3), ranked No. 5 in the CHSAA by The Post, trailed the eighth-ranked Lions (7-6, 0-5), 23-21 at the half, but she made sure that advantage didn’t last long. She got a basket and was fouled on her second putback attempt, buried midrange jumpers and scored in transition. Gallagher tracked down the rebound of a missed Jessica Jamin jumper and scored as the third-quarter buzzer sounded to put No. 5 Molloy up 39-30. That brought a roar from the bench.
“It was nice, I guess,” Gallagher said. “It was just another rebound that I got and put back up.”
Pralle, who had back-to-back buckets on two separate occasions, helped put the game away in the fourth. She scored off a feed from Dietrich to extend the Stanners lead to 47-33 with 2:10 left in the contest. The 6-foot forward’s rebounding contribution helped keep Loughlin from getting out in transition.
“They are a really fast team,” Pralle said. “They are athletic. Before the game we said we had to box out and use [our] transition.”
That wasn’t the case in the second quarter when Loughlin unleashed its trapping zone and full court press to spark a 9-0 run and take a 19-13 lead with 5:32 left in the period on an Imani Tate layup. The Stanners had turned the ball over on three straight possessions, before Pralle scored four quick points.
“Our second quarter was really awful,” Catalanotto said. “Traditionally this year we have come out slow in the second half and it’s a good thing that we didn’t.”
They have Gallagher to thank for that. The double-double machine put her own slow start behind her and gave her team the energy lift it needed.
“It takes me awhile for my body to warm up,” Gallagher said. “I need to work on starting off right in the first quarter, but we were losing and we needed to pick it up because we need to beat this team.”