The St. Kilian CYO Stars completed an extremely successful girls basketball season Sunday evening with a solid 57-48 victory over the number one team from Holy Name of Mary of Valley Stream in the Conference B Seniors Championship game at SUNY Farmingdale College's Nold Hall Fieldhouse. The Stars, composed of tenth and eleventh graders, competed in the senior division of the CYO basketball league for eleventh and twelfth grade girls.

The Stars finished the regular season in second place in their conference with a 7-3 record behind the undefeated Holy Name of Mary-1 team. The Stars, Kate Hogan, Aaisha Rogers, Christine Tinney, Shani Irby, Meghan Fanning, Kim Hillier, Krista Daniello and Lauren Cohen, had victories over Maria Regina (43-26), Our Lady of Perpetual Help (48-25), two over St. Aidans (51-22 and 46-26), St. Bernard (35-30), St. Raymond (49-31) and Holy Name of Mary-2. The three losses came to Holy Name of Mary-1 (36-29), Our Lady of Perpetual Help (37-31) and St. Anthony's of Oceanside (34-31). In all three losses the Stars were never at full strength missing key players.

The Stars had a 4-1 record at home and a 3-2 record on the road. The team had a great defense all season long giving up the second fewest points in the conference amongst teams that played a full schedule. The Stars also scored the second most points in the conference.

In the first round of the playoffs, the Stars faced the same St. Bernard team they had faced and defeated by five points during the regular season. This St. Bernard team is basically the MacArthur High School varsity team. The team traveled to Levittown and just like in the regular season game, St. Kilian jumped off to an early 19-10 lead at halftime in an extremely tight defensive game. This time St. Bernard actually took the lead late in the fourth quarter. Then at the very end of the game, Aaisha Rogers came down the court with the ball and made a big basket while also being fouled. Rogers made the foul shot to put the Stars ahead for good by the one point margin of victory. St. Bernard got the ball with about 20 seconds on the clock with a chance to win, but an outstanding team defensive effort led by Rogers forced an extremely bad and long shot that missed the basket as time ran out. This earned the Stars a hard fought and well deserved 35-34 victory and a shot at the title. Shani Irby led the Stars scoring with 11 points while Rogers was second with eight. Kate Hogan played her usual great game off the boards and in the defensive end.

In the championship game, the Stars again sprinted out to an early lead. All eight Stars scored in the first quarter in a very well balanced attack to give the team a 25-13 lead at the end of the quarter. Lauren Cohen, Irby and Hogan each had four points during this stretch. St. Kilian and Holy Name of Mary then both tightened up considerably in the second quarter defensively and went cold offensively with the Stars being outscored 7-3 for a 28-20 Stars lead at the half. In the third quarter Holy Name of Mary made a tremendous run at St. Kilian scoring 17 points to the Stars nine to draw even. The Stars then stepped it up in the fourth quarter and put Holy Name of Mary away outscoring them 19-10 to earn the victory. Shani Irby, Kim Hillier and Kate Hogan led the balanced Stars attack with nine points each. Lauren Cohen followed with eight points, four of them in the critical fourth quarter, while Aalsha Rogers had seven. Meg Fanning, Chris Tinney and Krista Daniello made important contributions of four points each.

Coaches Joe Fanning and Mary Ann Daniello started a team four seasons ago in 1997. The following season saw the formation of the current Stars team. Since the Stars were formed, the team has been in the playoffs each year, but have come up short each season. St. Bernard eliminated the team last year in the Tyro (9th and 10th grade) division. However, this year five of the original tenth grade Stars - Hogan, Cohen, Daniello, Fanning and Tinney - were joined by their eleventh grade teammates: Irby, Rogers and Hillier. These three girls were the final sparkplugs that propelled the team to their eventual championship. Coach Fanning proudly stated, "This was a great season played by a great group of talented girls who just would not quit. The championship was won through a team effort both offensively and defensively. It was a fitting end for the players, the coaches, and the entire St. Kilian CYO basketball program."

This program has been led for a long time by its long time president, John Ianno, who attended the championship game. Ianno is most responsible for the existing CYO program at St. Kilian's and without him it is doubtful the program would exist at all, at least in its current successful status.

The entire Stars team, players and coaches, received championship T-shirts following the game as they were introduced over the fieldhouse's public address system as the Senior B champions. The girls will get their well deserved championship trophies in the very near future and they will be one of the honored teams at a CYO dinner at the end of the entire CYO basketball season. They are champions both on and off the court and hopefully it will be a championship season that will shine on in their hearts and minds.