By Marc Raimondi
Coach Larry Carradine held her out of a non-league game against St. Francis Prep until halftime, but with the Judges down by two at the break, Harris decided she needed to be out there.”On defense, we weren't really getting out on the shooters,” the senior said. “On offense, we gotta know what our goal is Ð we gotta get it down to the big people.”So she shook the stuffy nose, ignored the persistent cough and the Terriers ended up being the ones feeling sick. Harris scored 10 points in the second half, leading Cardozo to a 49-41 win over the Terriers last Thursday at St. Francis Prep.”'Key' is one of our best players,” Carradine said. “Whenever she's in the game, we play our best basketball.”It was another one of Carradine's players that the Terriers were focused on – and for good reason. Prep coach JoAnn Wagner's strategy coming into the game was to take away Cardozo senior forward Adenike Oyesile on the offensive end and the Terriers were successful for the most part. Oyesile, who will be playing at St. Peter's next year, finished with only 13 points against a Prep team that kept clogging the paint against her. It was Harris's presence that really did St. Francis in. Her perimeter scoring allowed the lane to open up for Oyesile and a 9-2 run in the fourth quarter in which Harris and Oyesile scored seven points gave Cardozo a 45-35 lead with 4:18 left. Oyesile scored nine points in the second half.”She was a little lackadaisical in the first half,” Carradine said of Oyesile. “I didn't see any intensity. In the fourth quarter, she seemed to turn it on.”Junior Ashley McQuillan (17 points) was really the only Prep player to get going offensively. Senior Bonnie DeFina chipped in 10, but the Terriers, without starting point guard Joanna Verouhis, struggled to put the ball in the basket.”We didn't seem to have our heads in the game as far as executing our plan,” Wagner said.It's a problem Wagner hopes she won't be facing for the rest of the season, with six sophomores and one freshman (Verouhis) on the roster. Cardozo has no such issues. A senior-laden team has them leading the PSAL Queens AA division and a win over a CHSAA school like Prep further establishes the Judges as a power.”We never underestimate a team,” McQuillan said. “But I think for the most part we thought we should have won.”
