Girls Basketball: Varsity Indians earn playoff berth

The Indians squeaked their way into the Section XI playoffs with a 58-51 victory at Pierson/Bridgehampton on February 16. The victory capped a strong end-of-season drive during which the girls won four of their last five games and upped their season record to 6-6.

According to Section XI rules, a team that averages at least .500 in their league gets a Section XI playoff bid. Since Shelter Island is the only Class D school in their league with a .500 record, the Indians automatically earned the title of Section XI Class D champ and will play the Class C champion, Stony Brook, this Saturday for the Class C and D championship.

Regardless of the outcome of that game, the girls will head to the New York State Class D quarterfinals at New Paltz College to play the Section IX Class D winner on March 11 at 3 p.m.

Though the team could have petitioned to enter the playoffs had they lost last week’s game, varsity Coach Peter Miedema said, “It was nice to earn the automatic bid.”

For the first half against Pierson/Bridgehampton, it seemed as if the Indians might have to beg. “We may have played one of our worst halves of basketball,” Coach Miedema explained. Fortunately, the sloppy performance didn’t show on the scoreboard. “I felt like we were down by 28 but the score never said we were down by 28 … We just kind of looked dead out there.”

By the end of the first half, Shelter Island was trailing 19-10, but they prevented the Whalers from increasing their lead in the second quarter, which ended 31-22, Whalers. “Our defense was really just not what we planned and not how we prepared,” said the coach.

Midway through the third quarter, the girls picked up their game. They started playing solid defense, preventing drives to the net and forcing the Whalers to be “a completely outside-shooting team,” according to Coach Miedema. “We cut down on the internal penetration and forced them to just keep chucking it up from the outside.”

Though the Indians still weren’t in a strong scoring rhythm in the third quarter, Coach Miedema said, they were driving to the net and drawing fouls. The Indians scored on 14 foul shots while the Whalers scored none. “Eventually that wore them down,” Coach Miedema explained.

The fourth quarter was when the girls really turned it up, scoring 22 points to the Whalers’ 8. Though Corrine Mahoney came up from the JV to give the Indians a substitute, she was only on the court for a short time and most of the other girls played every minute of the game. “To withstand a poor first half and make your run late in the second half, it really shows their conditioning and their heart.”

It helped that the Whalers’ strongest player, Sarah Barrett (23 points), fouled out with about 4 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Coach Miedema said, adding “but we made our comeback even when she was still in the game.”

Kelsey McGayhey led the game in scoring with 30 points.

The Indians’ year got off to a slow start. After their 58-46 loss to Pierson/Bridgehampton on January 21, Shelter Island’s season record fell to 1-4 and the playoffs were not on the horizon.

But the Indians battled back to earn their playoff spot, and JV Coach Brian Doelger said he liked the Indians’ odds this Saturday. He traveled to
Patchogue on Tuesday night to watch Stony Brook beat Pierson/Bridgehampton to become the Class C winner. “I’d say we have a better than 50 percent chance. [Shelter Island] is peaking right now while some of the other teams in the league really aren’t. I think we might catch them by surprise.”

JUNIOR VARSITY: NO SUBS, NO PROBLEM

The odds were stacked against the JV Indians from the start at Pierson/Bridgehampton. After sending Mahoney up to the varsity squad to give the girls some relief, the Indians had no substitutes against a 13-girl team. Shelter Island expected the Whalers to use a technique they’ve seen from other larger teams before: a full-court press in the second half. This forces the Indians to fight just to get down the court when they’re already tired and at their most vulnerable.

“I felt like it was one of those games where everything had to go right for us to win it,” Coach Doelger said. Fortunately, he added, nearly everything did.

The Indians got out to an early lead in the first quarter, 8-4. Though they hadn’t yet found their scoring groove, Shelter Island was playing a strong defense, frustrating the Whalers’ offensive drive. The Indians took a 22-6 lead at the half.

“It seemed like every shot we took, we made, even those shots I would never expect us to make,” Coach Doelger explained. “Everything was dropping.”

The real challenge for the Indians was the second half, Coach Doelger said. “I knew we were going to struggle to hold on, and I told the team at half time, ‘You girls are really going to have to gut this thing out.’ It’s hard enough playing the whole game but let alone being pressed.”

The Whalers indeed began to press, and also put extra defensive pressure on the team’s lead scorer, Saverina Chicka. The Indians’ lead diminished as the Whalers started sinking baskets. By the end of the third quarter the score was 27-14, Indians.

But after a full season with a tiny bench, the girls were used to playing tired. Coach Doelger explained, “At the beginning of the year, it’s hard for the girls to play the entire game because they’re mentally and physically drained by the end of it. But by last week’s game, they were so conditioned that they were really able to tough it out.”

Talk about toughing it out: midway through the fourth quarter, Keri Ann Mahoney injured her wrist. Without any substitutes, she stayed on the floor until the final buzzer. Afterwards, her mother took her to the hospital where the doctors discovered a minor fracture.

It was worth it because the Indians took home the victory, 30-25. Chicka led the team with 14 points, followed by Melissa Ames with 6.

“It was a very nice win, a great way to end the season,” Coach Doelger said. The Indians finished 9-5 in their league. “All the girls got so much better,” he said, Chicka, Ames and Abbie Ross-Gates in particular.

Now that the JV season is over, Ross-Gates, Breanna Hallman, Ames and Chicka will join the varsity for the playoffs to provide the team with more depth.