Girls Basketball: After holiday break, Blue Waves go back to work
It was time to shake off the rust.
Every game has a purpose. The purpose of this game, for both high school girls basketball teams, was to get back into the swing of things following a holiday break. That meant back to work for Riverhead, which made its final game of 2015 a winning one.
In a rare Wednesday morning game, the Blue Waves beat Patchogue-Medford, 45-25, in a non-league meeting in Medford. Sam Dunn, who last month signed a national letter of intent to accept a scholarship from LIU Post, poured in 14 points to lead the way. Patchogue-Medford missed its last 18 field-goal attempts as Riverhead closed the game on a 22-2 run.
It was Riverhead’s first game in nine days and Patchogue-Medford’s first game in eight days. The time off showed for both sides, which combined for 58 turnovers and struggled with their shooting. While the Riverheaders shot 30.9 percent from the field, the Raiders shot 22.4 percent and made only two trips to the foul line, both in the fourth quarter.
The Blue Waves (5-2, 3-0 Suffolk County League III) never trailed, but pulled away in the third quarter when Patchogue-Medford (0-6, 0-3 League I) fell into a 2-for-12 shooting funk. With 5 points from Faith Johnson-DeSilvia, the Blue Waves outscored the Raiders, 12-4, in the quarter. Johnson-DeSilvia finished the game with six assists.
It was during the third quarter when Dunn followed up a missed 3-point attempt for a basket, igniting the game-ending 22-2 run. The 5-foot-10 senior forward, who shot 5 of 11 from the field, scored 12 of her points in the first half.
Another senior, Dezarae Brown, who, like Dunn, is a four-year varsity starter for Riverhead, hauled in 10 rebounds to go with 7 points.
Madison Ostrick led Patchogue-Medford with 10 points to go with 5 steals, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks.
Photo caption: Riverhead’s Mary Reiter keeps her eyes on the basket while being guarded by Patchogue-Medford’s Kenedy Petersen. (Credit: Garret Meade)
