Floral Park girls basketball's Ashley Battista comes up clutch in victory over Plainedge
Floral Park's Ashley Battista drives against Plainedge during a Nassau girls basketball game at Floral Park High School on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. Credit: Derrick Dingle
Consider Floral Park senior Ashley Battista fully redeemed.
Battista pulled down an offensive rebound and drew a foul with 12.3 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, earning herself two free throws with her team trailing visiting Plainedge by one point. With Floral Park’s gym silent and everyone’s eyes on her, all the pressure was certainly on Battista, but she hardly felt any of it.
“I just knew my team had my back no matter what,” Battista said. “Whether I made one, missed both or made both, so I shot them with total confidence.”
Battista knocked down both shots to take the one-point lead. Back on defense, following a missed shot by Plainedge, Battista leapt into the air and grabbed the loose ball before bouncing it off an opposing player and out of bounds, giving possession back to Floral Park.
Sophomore Juliette Payoute then took the ensuing inbound pass, drew a foul and hit both free throws with 2.5 seconds left to seal the 48-45 win for the Knights on Wednesday night.
“I knew once I made the first one, the second one was going in,” Battista said. “I was just thinking without fear there.”
This served as some redemption for Battista and Floral Park (11-4). Not only did the victory improve the Knights to 7-1 in Nassau Conference A-I, keeping them in first place, but it also avenged their only conference loss, which came on Dec. 17 at Plainedge, 42-39.
In that loss, Floral Park missed four free throws in the final 30 seconds. Battista missed two of those four.
Things got tough for Battista and company again this time around, as they did not make a field goal over the final 11 minutes and 55 seconds of the game. During that stretch, the Knights surrendered a 14-0 run to Plainedge — led by a pair of three-pointers from junior Peyton Wise — watching their 42-31 lead fall to a 45-42 deficit with 3:18 left.
Plainedge’s defense was impenetrable during this time, as it drew a charge, forced a shot-clock violation and caused Floral Park’s ball-handlers to travel three times.
Though the lid never fully came off the basket for the Knights, they clawed back into it by getting themselves shots that the Devils could not defend: free throws. Payoute snapped the 14-0 run by getting to the free-throw line and making both with 1:27 left, cutting the deficit to 45-44.
“The pressure was pretty difficult, but I always make sure I shut my eyes, take a breath, relax, say a prayer and then shoot,” Payoute said. “I feel like walking in, we knew we were going to have a tough battle, but we pulled through in the end, and that feels great.”
Battista finished with nine points and Payoute added eight, while senior Amanda Owen led Floral Park with 10. Wise led all scorers with 23 points for Plainedge (12-5, 6-3).
Mike Anderson is a high school sports reporter who has covered 12 sports so far at Newsday. He was the sports editor of Stony Brook University's campus newspaper for two years.
