Cold Spring Harbor girls basketball's Olivia Mulada scores 27 points to help lift Long Island 'B' title

When asked how to break Babylon's full-court press, Cold Spring Harbor girls basketball coach Rory Malone had a simple answer: "Olivia Mulada." 

"She makes our job so easy," he said. "She's so good with the ball. I don't worry about teams because I know she can handle it."

Mulada was able to break Babylon's top-tier full-court press with her skilled ball-handling ability, getting downhill and finishing in traffic while putting pressure on the rim to lead Cold Spring Harbor to a 76-43 victory over Babylon in the Long Island Class B championship in a state subregional at Suffolk Community College in Selden on Saturday.

"We prepare for the press in practice," Mulada said. "But we create a lot of space, and with that open space, it helps a lot because I can see my teammates cutting through and making the right play."

Defensively, Mulada was a pest. She picked up Babylon's standout point guard, Morgan Fiedler, the full 94 feet as the point-of-attack defender so that the Panthers wouldn't set up their half-court offense.

"There's no challenge she doesn't accept," Malone said. "I get caught up watching her play, going 'ooh and ahh.'"

"She's an amazing player, and she's only a freshman," Mulada said about Fiedler. "Containing her was hard, but in the second half, we picked it up. We knew we had to get the job done."

Mulada scored 17 of her 27 points in the first half to capture back-to-back Long Island Class B championships.

"This win shows us who we are," Mulada said. "I let the game come to me. I was focusing on one possession at a time."

The Seahawks (19-4) will play the representative of Section I/Section IX at 2:30 p.m. on March 15 at Farmingdale State College in the Class B Southeast Regional final.

"Through all their sports, soccer, lacrosse, these games are nothing new to them," Malone said. "It's going to be a great game, and we are excited for the challenge."

Ainsley Dircks used a euro-step layup in transition to spark a 19-2 run in the third quarter for Cold Spring Harbor that lasted five minutes. Cold Spring Harbor allowed only three field goals in the frame.

"We definitely picked up in the second half," said Dircks, who scored 15 points. "We played our brand of basketball, super fast-paced, and we all worked together."

Nine different players scored for Cold Spring Harbor, the defending state Class B champions.

Fiedler scored 20 points, and Peyton Logue-Boyd had 12 points for Babylon (18-4).

Even though Saturday's win felt great, the Seahawks have their eyes set on winning back-to-back state titles.

"We relied on each other a lot," Dircks said. "We know we have been here before and keep working together to try to repeat last year."

By Jonathan Ruban

jonathan.ruban@newsday.com

Jonathan Ruban covers high school sports for Newsday after graduating from St. John’s.