The third time wasn’t the charm for the Berkeley Carroll girls varsity basketball team. Despite a valiant effort, the Lady Lions fell in their third and final meeting against Staten Island Academy 49-42 at Todt Hill Monday afternoon- eliminating them from the ACIS playoffs and ending their season.

The defending champion Lions put up a good fight in another back and forth competitive semifinal against the Lady Tigers. For virtually 31 minutes, very little separated the two ACIS division rivals as they fought tooth and nail to see who would make tomorrow’s league championship game at Poly Technical Institute.

Looking to avenge a 10-point PSAA title loss from a few days prior, the Lions went ahead by two on senior star guard Zoe Cohen’s trey from the right arc off a well executed double screen. However, Academy center Mayana LeGrande knotted it by converting a six foot lay-up inside the paint. She had just returned from a broken bone in her foot last Thursday and once again made a difference hurting the Lions down low in the final quarter with eight of her 12 from in tight.

The Lions were able to stay right with the Tigers thanks to a solid second half from freshman Keyanka Bailey, who notched all 11 of her points following the break. Her stellar play kept them afloat with it being anyone’s game headed to the final period.

With senior guard Elena Levi doing a respectable job guarding last week’s PSAA tournament MVP Chelsea Aronica, it looked like the contest would require overtime. However, a couple of big buckets from 1,000-plus point senior Alexa Milchman suddenly put the Tigers in front 45-39. A three-point play and a deep trey from over the top of the left circle gave her school the upper hand down the stretch.

A couple of free throws from backcourt partner Aronica made it eight straight points with less than a minute to go. However, the Lions wouldn’t go quietly as sophomore shooting guard Tess Salvatore drained a three to cut it to 47-42 allowing BC coach Walter Paller to use his final timeout.

It would be the closest his club would get as a couple of more SIA free throws put it out of reach allowing the Tigers and winning coach Mike Reape to advance to Tuesday’s ACIS championship game.

Cohen bows out: In spite of a worthy effort in which she paced all scorers with 22 getting more than half her team’s output, unfortunately it turned out to be Cohen’s final game of a brilliant career in which she notched over 1,500 points.

The senior guard plans to attend New Paltz next Fall and should be heard from on the court as her school will make a visit to New York University.