By Domenico Montanaro
The Baltimore Ravens were not the only team on Super Bowl Sunday to make it clear they were the better team.
With a 66-44 trouncing of Francis Lewis, the Murry Bergtram girls basketball team made it clear at St. Francis College it was the PSAL’s top team.
Like the Giants, Lewis was supposed to put up a good fight. The Patriots, after all, lost to the Lady Blazers in OT last year in the PSAL A Division playoffs, and with a neutral site, a playoff atmosphere was supposed to be created.
But like the Giants, Lewis couldn’t compete with the two-time defending city champs after the opening quarter and as for playoff atmosphere, barely 100 people came out to watch, making the gym as quiet as the Giants’ offense — or Lewis' for that matter.
“We need to figure out a way to score more than 44 points,” Patriots coach Mike Eisenberg said. “There is no one better in PSAL than Murry Bergtram. I don’t know if it was our defense or our offense, but we usually give up 40, 45 points a game.”
Lewis, which played most of the first half without Lissette Morales (eight points) because of foul trouble, had a fighting chance after the first quarter. The Patriots were only down 18-14.
Lewis was still only down four with three minutes to go in the half. But with an 11-4 spurt to close out the half, the Lady Blazers stretched out the lead to 11.
There was no return for the Patriots, who were outsized and a step slower than Bergtram. In the second half, the Lady Blazers kept pouring it on.
Bergtram went on a game-sealing 13-0 run in the span of four minutes in the third to go up 20.
Lewis tried to make a run of its own, but its 8-0 run in the fourth ended as abruptly is it began and the Lady Blazers scored 10 of the last 12 points in the game.
The Patriots’ Teresa Rozza, who finished with a team-high 11 points, was cold shooting and there was minimal production from the rest of her teammates.
Bergtram’s Cindy Gonzalez led all scorers with 18 points, and cohort Crystal McFadden added 17.
“I thought it would have been a closer game,” McFadden said. “They almost beat us last year. Coach really wanted us to win. Hopefully we’ll take another city championship.”
Bergtram coach Ed Grenzsky said of Francis Lewis, “They’re one of the better teams in the city. As for us, we’re one of the teams to beat, but you’re only as good as your last dog fight.”
