Newsday's Long Island All-Decade Girls Basketball Players: The 2010s

Excerpt from article:

The decade provided a glimpse of two players who would play in the WNBA: Arella Guirantes of Bellport and Celeste Taylor of Long Island Lutheran. They lit up the hardwood on Long Island with deft shooting touch and exciting ball-handling. Guirantes was selected in the second round by the Los Angeles Sparks in 2021 and Taylor was drafted in the second round by the Indiana Fever in 2024.

It was also the decade of "Boogie." As in Lauren "Boogie" Brozoski, a four-time All-Long Island first-team selection who led Long Island Lutheran to four state Federation titles in five years, the most dominant run in Long Island history.

The selection committee consisted of two longtime sportswriters, Gregg Sarra and Mike Candel. Sarra has covered high schools for 40 years. Candel covered high school and college sports from 1976 until his retirement in 2002. Selections are based on the totality of a player's career. This is the 12th and final part of our basketball series.

Kaia Harrison, Baldwin

She had an incredible high school career, leading the Bruins to five straight Nassau Class AA titles, three Long Island championships and two public school state crowns. That included an MVP performance in the state Federation win in 2018. Who else can say that? She finished her Wake Forest career ranked second in program history with 145 games played. She was also the second-leading scorer with nine points per game in her senior season.

Aziah Hudson, Baldwin

A guard with an explosive first step, she earned All-Long Island first team honors three times from 2016-18. She is Baldwin’s all-time leading scorer and helped lead the Bruins to two state championships. She spent her college career at Old Dominion, where she was named the 2020 Conference USA Co-Sixth Player of the Year as a sophomore and to the C-USA Commissioner’s Honor Roll as a junior.

Coach of the Decade

Tom Catapano, Baldwin

The Bruins were of the fast-break variety, always in transition and playing suffocating defense. Catapano earned Newsday Coach of the Year in 2014 and 2017. He guided the Bruins to six straight Nassau Class AA titles between 2014-19. He’s led the program to 13 Nassau Class AA conference titles, seven Long Island crowns and three state titles. Baldwin is the only Nassau Class AA school to repeat as state champions, in 2017 and 2018. He led the Bruins to a win over then-undefeated Christ the King, the top-ranked team in the country at the time, to claim the state Class AA Federation title in 2018.

Read the full article online in Newsday.com>>