Top left-right: Assistant coach Earl Thomas, Brittany Lewis (Valley Stream), Lauren Nuss (Garden City), Assistant coach Daren Faulk, Paige Kriftcher (Port Washington), Samantha Cody (Long Beach), Darius Faulk (Hempstead), Brianna Thomas (Baldwin), Head coach Dennis Nuss. Bottom left-right: Kimberly Ryan (Garden City), Christina Raiti (Plainview), Samantha Paladino (Amityville), Nicole Scicutella (Massapequa), Caitlin McGuinness (Garden City). The Long Island Lightning 12-under AAU girls basketball team, which features three players from Garden City as well as head coach Dennis Nuss, repeated as Metropolitan AAU Regional champions last week, going 4-0 and routing two nationals-qualifying teams in the process.

Lightning Nuss, which finished 3rd in the AAU Division 1 national championships last summer in Missouri, defeated the Westchester Hawks, 85-33, in the regional semifinals and then routed the Staten Island Rebels, 72-36, in the finals, which were played at South Bay Sportsplex in Calverton.

The previous week both the Westchester Hawks and SI Rebels qualified for the nationals - with the Hawks finishing second in a Super Regional in Connecticut and the Rebels qualifying at a Fencor tournament in Philadelphia.

Lightning players from Garden City are Caitlin McGuinness, Lauren Nuss and Kimberly Ryan.

he LIL Nuss team will play in four more tournaments in preparation for the D-1 nationals, to be held June 29 to July 7 in Rochester, Minn.