Girls Basketball: Shelter Island’s McGayhey era comes to an end

BY MICHAEL LEWIS  CONTRIBUTOR

A misty-eyed Kelsey McGayhey walked off a basketball court after a competitive basketball game one last time last Saturday. Her storied number 23 will never be worn again.

The senior forward was emotional over the fact that her high school athletic career was over after Shelter Island dropped a 58-31 decision to Livingston Manor in the Southeast Region Class D final at Farmingdale State College.

“I’m upset because it’s over,” she said. “But I can’t be that upset because we had a hell of a season. It’s been one of the best seasons in Shelter Island basketball. You’ve got to suck it up. It was my last year and I had a great time.”

It was a tough way to end a career. The Indians (12-6) enjoyed an 8-3 lead midway through the opening quarter, when McGayhey scored 8 of her team-high 14 points. But that was before everything but the gymnasium roof seemingly fell on the team.

The Wildcats (12-8) combined a relentless full-court press that forced Shelter Island into 35 turnovers and some long-range hot-shooting (eight 3-point baskets) that stymied the Indians, who shot a cold 22 percent from the field.

“As the game progressed, as we started getting lower and lower, further away from them, our hopes started to go down,” McGayhey said. “We didn’t stay with them.”

There rarely has been a female athlete who has meant so much to Shelter Island. She became the first 1,000-point scorer in school history this season, leaving as its best girls basketball player.

“It is very special to have someone like that,” Shelter Island Coach Peter Miedema said. “Watching her on so many levels, playing volleyball, and sometimes you are amazed at what she is able to do athletically. You play a lifetime of sports and you see people that are good players and then you see someone who is a step above that. She’s got a lot of talent. She’s going to do very well in college playing volleyball.”

Shelter Island plans to retire McGayhey’s uniform number, 23.

“It is an honor to watch someone like that play,” said Miedema.

McGayhey and her teammates certainly will remember the first seven minutes of the game, when they grabbed that 5-point lead. But in a scant 54.5 seconds that closed out the period, Livingston stole the momentum, outscoring Shelter Island, 7-2, a surge that was capped by Maggi Calo’s 3-point shot with three seconds to go in the quarter for a 10-10 tie. Calo, a senior guard, scored 13 of her 18 points, including canning a trio of 3-point shots, in the first half.

Shelter Island could not handle Livingston’s full-court press, making 20 first-half turnovers (12 alone in the second period), some forced, others unforced.

“You know what’s different about this team? Four out of five girls can pressure the ball,” Miedema said. “Normally, the teams that we play, two girls. If we can get to the third person, we wouldn’t have to worry about the pressure as much. But here, they had four girls who could really stick you. It was really hard for us to get an offensive set. … Those things just kind of weigh on you. Then it was one three after another.”

Livingston was in the midst of an 11-0 run that left the upstate team with a 16-10 advantage. By the halftime buzzer, the Wildcats expanded their lead to 30-15.

“I think the girls kind of felt they shot themselves in the foot a little bit and it should be closer,” Miedema said. “They just had that feeling that things weren’t falling in place for them. The mental lapses on certain plays offensively, defensively. It was like they were taking turns to take mental lapses. Just bad pass here, not closing out defensively there, not doing the right thing on the press break; it just snowballed from there.”

But the Indians refused to give up.

“I don’t give up until the buzzer rings,” McGayhey said. “So I still had high hopes if we could win. I really wish we could have done it but it just didn’t happen that way.”

Livingston junior guard Samantha Scott scored 16 of her game-high 19 points, including three 3-point baskets, in the third quarter to squelch any Shelter Island attempt at a comeback.

Livingston dressed only seven players, so the Wildcats were taking a huge risk by playing a full-court press, which could have led to foul trouble. That would have been devastating with a small bench.

“They played very aggressively,” Miedema said. “I thought we were going to get a few more calls. But I’m not going to start talking about the refs. We should have gotten to the basket a lot more. I think we were so focused on getting the ball up floor, [we] forgot about the half-court offense.”

And perhaps McGayhey as well.

“She has the ability to go to the basket and create things,” Miedema said, “but other people had to step up. The more she does, the emphasis is going [to be] to stop her and someone else is going to make shots. You can’t expect her to score 30 points in a half.”

While McGayhey’s basketball career might be finished, her athletic career is far from over. The next time she competes in school will be in college volleyball, most likely at Springfield College in Massachusetts.

In fact, McGayhey did not return to Shelter Island immediately after the game. She went to Albany to participate in a volleyball tournament.

Life goes on, even for Shelter Island’s best girls basketball player.