MacArthur girls basketball's Meaghan Campbell, Gabrielle Nicolini have Generals on cruise control
Gabrielle Nicolini of MacArthur dribbles during a Nassau girls basketball game against host Jericho on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. Credit: Kelvin Loarca
MacArthur senior duo Meaghan Campbell and Gabrielle Nicolini have seen a ton of success over the last four years.
An 18-win season as freshmen ended in the quarterfinals. In another 18-win season as sophomores, MacArthur reached the semifinals. A year ago as juniors, the pair got to the county finals with a 17-win season.
Now 13-0 after a 68-14 road win over an 11-win Jericho team Saturday in Nassau AA-I, Campbell and Nicolini agreed on one thing. This season feels a bit different.
“This is the year where it’s a clean slate, and we really have a chance to go far,” Nicolini said.
Nicolini had 13 points, six rebounds, six steals and a block against the Jayhawks, her 12th game with double-digit points.
Ysabelle Perillo added 14 points and five steals. She’s a member of MacArthur’s star-studded senior class, which makes up 10 of the 16 girls on the roster and four of the five starters.
“We’ve done this before, and I think finally, all that chemistry is clicking,” Nicolini said. “Those passes, those rebounds, the first place we look is up at each other to push the ball. We move so quickly together; we know what each other is going to do before we even do it. I think that’s where everything has fallen into place this year, like a puzzle.”
It’s also been a record-setting week for Campbell, who became the first player in program history to record 1,000 career rebounds Wednesday against New Hyde Park. She added nine more rebounds, five off the offensive glass, plus nine points as she nears 1,000 career points, as well.
“It is an amazing feeling,” Campbell said. “I love defense the most, so getting that honor of being the first in MacArthur to hit 1,000 rebounds, that’s what I like doing.”
Jericho (11-3) has enjoyed a terrific winter season — already equaling the team’s win total from a year ago — but struggled without senior captain and leading scorer Sadie Krangle, who was sidelined with the flu. Coach Andy Schneider called Krangle, a career 1,000-point scorer for the Jayhawks, the team’s “security blanket.”
“[Freshman Angela Tan] and [sophomore Sonia Ngai] have really been the big difference in taking a lot of the pressure off of Sadie,” Schneider said. “A team like us that relies so heavily on one person, not having her here is a really big absence.”
MacArthur — which has won 11 of its 13 games by at least 10 points — is still a program without a county title. For a group of seniors who have dreamed of bringing a championship to Levittown, it’s now or never for the Generals, who continue to march past each team they face.
Michael Sicoli covers high school sports for Newsday. He graduated from Quinnipiac in 2022 and left with a master’s degree in sports journalism in 2023.
