Westhampton Beach Girls Basketball Team Loses Season Opener To East Islip

Westhampton Beach senior Caroline Henke said if you asked her a couple of months ago, she’d tell you there was no way her Hurricanes girls basketball team was going to have a season.

“I never thought we’d get back here,” she said. “Nine months later … It’s crazy. It feels good, though. I’m so thankful to be back.”

On Monday, the guard put up a team-high eight points in Westhampton Beach’s 40-28 season-opening loss at home to East Islip.

“In the beginning, we were really confident, and then we started falling behind, which was frustrating,” Henke said of her Suffolk County championship-defending team. “Getting yourself in a spot where your score is so low and you have to climb back is tough, and we brought it close, but we just have to start gaining that momentum earlier.”

Junior guard Olivia Rongo, who scored five points, split the scoring with Henke early. After East Islip racked up eight straight, the first six on back-to-back three-pointers, Rongo got the Hurricanes on the board with a layup. Just over two minutes later, Henke hit one of her own, but East Islip hung on to a 10-point lead after seven minutes, 14-4.

“I think that we still have a lot to work on. We did not play as well as I know we all can,” Rongo said. “There were a lot of plays where I finally felt like we got our mojo back, but then we lost it again.”

What proved difficult to overcome was the Redmens’ height, and the fact the team put up five three-pointers, four in the first half to bounce out to a 23-10 lead by halftime. Head coach Katie Peters said, after losing two impact players in Layla Mendoza and Belle Smith, the team struggled to get up to speed in just a week’s time.

“Any time you lose players to graduation your team dynamic changes so much,” she said. “With that being said, we’re rebuilding, finding our rhythm. I think we have a dedicated group, a focused group, a resilient group, and you put those things together usually good things come out of it.”

When it came to the defensive side of the ball, though, the Hurricanes picked up right where they left off, putting forward a strong press in the second half, forcing turnovers, converting those possessions into points and moving fast to force open lanes. Seven different girls scored field goals in the third, with freshman guard Jane Atkinson’s bucket at 3:15 pulling the Hurricanes within single digits, 20-29, for the first time since the opening stanza. With three free-throw points to open the third, Henke brought her team the closest it would come, within four, 31-27, with 4:37 left on the clock.

“Driving definitely helps. We rack up those fouls,” Henke said. “We just need more practice, and now we know what we’re working with and what we need to work on. We’ll fix it.”

What Peters said the team is lacking is someone to step up and be the point person, the team’s voice.

“At this point, we need to identify someone who is going lead us, someone to direct us on the court — slowing us down when we need to slow down, pushing it when the ball needs to be pushed,” the coach said. “That piece of the puzzle hasn’t quite connected yet.”

Henke said not having any fans in the stand also made it difficult, especially when it came to mounting a comeback.

“The crowds get us riled up,” she said. “We knew the circumstances, though.”

Regardless, the head coach said she’s happy to see her girls back out on the court, especially her seniors.

“I’m very excited for the girls to get this opportunity to play,” Peters said. “All of our lives have been uprooted from what was normal. To have some sense of normalcy for them as young student-athletes I think is just the most important piece of this.”

Senior Molly Skorobohaty agreed.

“With my junior year being cut short and not being able to play the first half of this senior season, being able to just participate in this game today meant so much more to me then I can express,” she said. “I was hoping that I could get on the court at least once before I graduated, just for old times’ sake, and I am so glad that I am able to play one final season with my teammates. There’s been a few changes, and a lot of difficult times throughout the past year, but being able to be reunited on the court made all of this waiting worth it in the end.”

Even without momentum in this game, Henke said she feels her Hurricanes have it on their side coming off the team’s first county championship win since 2005. She’s hoping the girls can prove they still have what it takes despite what they’ve lost, and sees brighter days ahead.

“We all just felt good getting back on the court,” Henke said. “At the end of the day, I’m so excited for us. We can only get better from here. And we’ll get there.”