On Thursday, Feb.14, for the third time in the last four years, the Portledge Varsity Girls and Boys Basketball teams both became the champions of IPPSAL (Independent Private and Parochial School’s Athletic League). The evening’s opening act, the IPPSAL Varsity Girls Basketball Championship game between Portledge School (Locust Valley) and Waldorf School of Garden City, turned out to be nothing but a formality as the Portledge Lady Panthers raced their way to their fourth consecutive IPPSAL crown. The 63 to 28 victory, which became Head Coach Skip Amadio’s 100th win at the Portledge helm, demonstrated the team’s dominant style of pressure defense and fast break attack. Sophomore Morgan Follet (Bayville) was unstoppable early, as she totaled 20 first half points, most of which came after a Portledge steal or blocked shot. As always the Lady Panthers’ great defense was keyed by the quick hands of junior guard Tamara Simpson (North Babylon) and the long arms of senior center Ceci Mulry (Glen Cove). Whenever Waldorf managed to avoid a steal by Simpson, who is being heavily recruited by many Division I college programs, Mulry was there to swat away their attempts to score.
After the girls celebrated their domination of IPPSAL, it was time for the Varsity Boys team to take the floor. Being the 3rd seed, the boys had a much tougher time in their championship match up against the top seeded Martin De Porres School (Queens). Coach Nick Woll’s squad didn’t back down an inch though, as they demonstrated their incredible conditioning and attention to detail by pressing the high flying Monarchs of Martin De Porres throughout the hard fought contest. In the end, the Panthers’ pressure defense was the key to their double digit win. Key contributions to the Portledge victory were made by junior forwards Terence Simpson (North Babylon) and Kyle Flowers (Jamaica), sophomore point guard David Lustberg (Huntington).
Both the Varsity Girls and Boys teams will now move on to the New York State Independent School Class “C” Championships, which began on Thursday, Feb. 28.
