Sports

Wildcats boys hoops team look to break losing streak

After a scorching hot start to the season, Shoreham-Wading River’s boys basketball team has hit some hard times of late, losing five games in a row, including Friday night’s, 50-33 loss against Kings Park at Shoreham-Wading River High School.

The losing stretch started right after the new year began with losses against Islip, John Glenn, Mt. Sinai, Miller Place and now Kings Park – all teams within the division – to bring their league record to 3-6.  They haven’t scored more than 50 points since the new year, something that they did regularly during December when they won six games in a row.

“First thing is that we seem to be playing teams right after they had a bad or tough game and they step up against us as a rebound,” SWR head coach Kevin Culhane said. “Another thing is we just haven’t been in sync offensively. The teams are playing us much tougher defensively and we’re having trouble getting our offense going.”

Kings Park on Friday kept the pressure on defensively almost the entire game, forcing the Wildcats to speed up their offensive possessions, oftentimes resulting in turnovers. The inexperience level of the guards seemed to shine through, forcing possessions instead of running their regular offensive sets.

“We have a slow half court offense and Kings Park did a good job of taking that away from us,” Culhane said. “We tried to move faster and ended up forcing a shot instead of creating one through our plays.”

A lot of the disconnect has been a result of losing senior captain Jack McInnis to injury, who was seen on the sideline using crutches. 

“He was really the glue on the team,” Culhane said. “The guy who calms everyone down and takes control. We definitely miss him out on the court. He always made a huge impact.”

McInnis missing has forced other players to step up including freshman Tyler Lievre, sophomore Zach Makarewicz and junior James Cook, who each had strong moments in the game against Kings Park. Lievre scored six, Cook netted five and Makarewicz added two. To win, the team will need more from each of them.

Lievre has scored as many as 24 points in a game this season. Makarewicz scored 18 points two separate times. Cook scored 12 in a game early in the season. The team has capable secondary scorers, they just need to put it all together for the entire game.

Junior Max Boerum, who is an essential part of the offense, has scored as many as 18 in a game. Senior center Dylan McClelland has scored as many as 13 in a game. 

Many can score individually but can they score as a team? That’s what is going to be on the agenda as Shoreham-Wading River commences a 11-day layoff before they face Hampton Bays on Jan. 28. 

“We’re going to work on a lot of different things,” Culhane said. “We’ll tweak some stuff. I feel like our defense has been solid. We need better rebounding on the defensive boards and we need better cohesion on the offensive end. We need to win a few games out of the break and then it’ll be a battle the rest of the way to get into a playoff spot.

Playoffs or not, the Wildcats took a huge step forward this year after posting a 4-16 record last season. They currently own a 8-7 overall record. To make the playoffs, they’ll need to win four of the final five league games.