Lady Goldbacks celebrate senior night with a win

By Bond Brungard
Posted 2/22/19

A year ago, Newburgh’s girls’ basketball team’s playoff chances ended late. This season those memories have been erased, and the Lady Goldbacks’ had already secured a playoff …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Lady Goldbacks celebrate senior night with a win

Posted

A year ago, Newburgh’s girls’ basketball team’s playoff chances ended late. This season those memories have been erased, and the Lady Goldbacks’ had already secured a playoff berth prior to playing Kingston for the second time this season Thursday.

Kingston won their first meeting and those memories started to fade after the Lady Goldbacks took their second game 57-47 following senior night festivities at home that honored Diamond Bullard, Alera Jicha, Gabby Palladino and E’Layasia Williams.

Palladino led the Lady Goldbacks with 19 points when she landed a pair of threes. Williams scored 10 points. Jicha scored 7 points, and Bullard scored 4 points, all in the second quarter when Kingston closed in as Newburgh led 28-24 at the half.

Newburgh’s defense went to work as the offense pulled away to maintain a 10-point lead during the second half.

“Offensively, we are getting better. This was the 18th game of the year. We are warming up,” said Arturo Santana, Newburgh’s coach, as his team improved to 8-10.

The Lady Goldbacks may not be .500 overall, but they have a winning league record and have beat Monroe-Woodbury, the league leader, Middletown and Kingston at least once this season.

Now the postseason looms as the sectional tournament gets underway next week, and there is more work to do.
“We are focused on the things we need to get better at,” said Santana. “The postseason is who’s hot. And we’re warm, not hot yet.”

The Lady Goldbacks struggled this season, losing to Saugerties to open the season and losing to Valley Central and Pine Bush, Monroe-Woodbury, Warwick and to Kingston by two points during their first meeting.

But as the season burned into February, the Lady Goldbacks hit a stride when they defeated Middletown, Kingston and Burke during a seven-day span.

“There’s definitely a lot of improvement,” said Palladino. “We are playing more as a team now. We are passing a lot more, shooting a lot better.”