Girls Basketball: SWR, hardly tested, keeps rolling along
Shoreham-Wading River has hardly been pushed during this high school girls basketball season, and Thursday was no different.
Shoreham, with all its athleticism and depth, had little trouble handling winless East Hampton, 55-13. The Wildcats ran off 32 consecutive points on the way to an insurmountable 34-2 lead as visiting East Hampton struggled to find the basket.
Ten Wildcats scored, led by Maria Smith with 13 points. The choppy Suffolk County League VI game saw Shoreham make 22 steals, cause 34 turnovers and dominate in rebounds, 32-19.
It was the sort of result to be expected from Shoreham (8-1, 4-0), which had started the day tied with Mount Sinai (7-0, 3-0 before its game Thursday against Wyandanch). It was Shoreham’s sixth straight win since its only loss, to Pierson/Bridgehampton.
East Hampton (0-7, 0-4) did some good things, but struggled mightily with its shooting. After Olivia Braver’s putback tied the score at 2-2, the Bonackers missed their next 13 field-goal attempts. They didn’t score again until Alex Rutkowski swished a three-pointer, making it 36-6 early in the third quarter.
But East Hampton appeared to find its shot somewhat in the third quarter, shooting 4-for-9. The Bonackers went 0-for-11 in the fourth, though, and finished the game going 5-for-35 (14.3 percent).
Shoreham’s top player, Mackenzie Zajac, struggled a bit with her shot, too. The senior guard, who is headed for SUNY/Cortland, had only one point by halftime and shot 0-for-8 from the field in the opening half. Her first basket didn’t come until she drove through the lane for a layup three minutes and 27 seconds into the third quarter. Zajac ended up with eight points, shooting 3-for-13 with a three-pointer.
