Dukes fall to Middies in Feller Tourney final

By Mike Zummo
Posted 12/7/22

The Marlboro girls’ basketball team was in a good position, leading the Middletown Middies by six points at halftime.

However, the offense dried up and, while the Middies didn’t take …

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Dukes fall to Middies in Feller Tourney final

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The Marlboro girls’ basketball team was in a good position, leading the Middletown Middies by six points at halftime.

However, the offense dried up and, while the Middies didn’t take full advantage, they got enough offense to make a late push for a 43-39 win in Thursday’s Corinne Feller Memorial Tournament championship game at Valley Central High School in Montgomery.

“They packed it in tight on us, and we just couldn’t hit shots and we couldn’t feed the post,” Marlboro coach Gary Trapani said. “In the first half, we were hitting some outside shots. Hannah (Polumbo) had some good looks on the inside, but they took that away from us.”

Murphy and Polumbo also secured Marlboro’s two spots on the all-tournament team. Murphy had a team-high 20 points and Polumbo added seven.

Polumbo scored 20 points two nights earlier in the Dukes’ 70-27 win over the John S. Burke Catholic Eagles in the tournament’s opening game.

“They’re both captains,” Trapani said. “I’ve been coaching Gabby for four years now. She’s only a sophomore. I’ve been coaching Hannah for three. They do everything we ask. Sometimes that’s not enough.”

Murphy scored 14 of her points in the first half as the Dukes built a 25-19 halftime lead.

She knocked down a 3-pointer with 42 seconds into the third quarter to give the Dukes a nine-point lead, but that’s when the offense faded, as the Dukes didn’t get another basket for four minutes, when Polumbo hit two foul shots to give her team a 30-27 lead.

However, a 3-pointer by Middletown’s Isaiah Ramirez and a foul shot by Sydney MacCalla gave Middletown a 33-30 lead, heading into the fourth quarter.

Polumbo hit a pair of free throws to pull Marlboro back to within a point, but by the time the Dukes scored again – a basket by eighth-grader Nalyah Campbell - the Middies had taken their largest lead of the day.

While the offense struggled, the defense kept the game close.

“I hope they take that our defense is solid,” Trapani said. “I hope that they take that they didn’t give up. They know that they persevered. It was a four-point game with a minute to go. That’s what you coach for. You just want to be in it in that last minute.”

Middletown’s Ashley MacCalla was named tournament MVP for the second straight year, leading Middletown with a game-high 23 points.

Her older sister, Sydney MacCalla scored 10 points and was named to the all-tournament team.

Lily Sullivan also scored 21 points in the Dukes’ win over John S. Burke Catholic.

Valley Central finished third in the tournament with a 45-22 win over Burke Catholic in the consolation game. Jenna O’Connor, a Valley Central sophomore and the niece of Corinne Feller, was named to the all-tournament team after scoring a game-high 14 points.

Rose Conlon was named to the all-tournament team for Burke Catholic.

“The biggest takeaway is that we can hang, and we can stay in games, even when things aren’t going our way,” Trapani said. “We just keep fighting and finding a way.”