Go Lady Eagles!
YMA Junior Point Guard Liliana Toro
By Dan Murphy
In a Defensive Masterpiece, the Yonkers Montessori Academy Lady Eagles Basketball team shut down Blind Brook High school in the Class B quarterfinals at the County Center in White Plains on March 3, 63-37, in the Section One Class B Girls Semifinals.
YMA, (19-3), took control early in the match, stretching their lead to 27-points by the third quarter. The Eagles’ strong performance included a pivotal 9-0 run sparked by Arsela Mustafaj’s three-pointer.
Emilee Doherty led the YMA Lady Eagles with 21 points. “I think we really came out today on defense. We had a lot of energy and shared the ball really well. We focused in practice all week on defense and it showed. We are locked in for the finals and everyone is going to kick it up to another level,” said Doherty who was interviewed after the game by Gameday One on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/gameday_one/reels/
Any message to the YMA fans from Yonkers and beyond? “Come out and support us and hopefully we will bring the Gold ball home.”
Arsela Mustafaj scored 14 points and Toro and Anisa Mustafaj each added 10 points. Grace Gleeson scored six.
Next up in the Class B Finals for YMA are their rivals, Hamilton High School, (20-2). The two teams have already played each other twice, with YMA winning the first game, 53-42 on Jan. 7, but Hamilton won the next game, 58-48. Several YMA players were sick with the flu for that game.
The championship game will be on Sunday, March 8 at 5pm at the Westchester County Center.
For the YMA Lady Eagles, this is a chance to make history and become one of the truly great high school sports teams in Yonkers history. They were Class B champs last year and are looking to repeat.
YMA Coach Ellie Moise said, “We want to win another so bad. We want it for this city, and to show that last year wasn’t a fluke.”
