Riverhead girls basketball shows improvement in close loss to Brentwood

The start of the season has been rough for the Riverhead girls basketball team, but that hasn’t stopped head coach Kevin Ghigliotti from trying to piece together a winning formula. 

Riverhead lost to Brentwood, 47-35, on Monday at Riverhead High School to drop their league record to 0-3 in the opening stretch of the season. Though the final score doesn’t exactly reflect it, the Blue Waves were right in the game from start to finish and had plenty of chances to take the lead.

“That was probably the best game we’ve played so far this season,” said Ghigliotti, who enters his second year as head coach. “I thought we kept them contained for the most part defensively. They’re a good team with a great coach. We really just needed to make some more of our open shots. I felt like we got great looks.”

Brentwood was the best team in League I last year and posted a 21-3 overall record. The matchup between the two teams was not close last year. So the fact that the Blue Waves were tied or within a few points throughout the game is a great sign this season.

“We know how good every team is in League 1,” Ghigliotti said. “You have to show up every day. Even the top teams have to show up to win the games they’re supposed to win. We knew we were starting out facing a bunch of playoff teams from last year, so we have to fight through it.”

Riverhead will continue to rely on their three long-tenured seniors — Adriana Martinez, Jordyn Kwasna and Kyleigh Lennon — to lead the way. The trio each had big moments in the game against Brentwood.

“We have to find more ways to score the ball,” Ghigliotti said. “And that’s mostly going to fall on our seniors, who have been in the program since freshman year. I know we’re probably one of the best defensive teams in the division, but we need to score.”

Lennon scored a team-high 12 points against Brentwood. Kwasna added nine and Martinez had eight. Riverhead forced turnovers all night to keep the game close. Martinez snatched five steals over the course of the game.

“We have the athletes to make life difficult for the opposing team so I feel good about our chances on defense,” Ghigliotti said. “Basketball is a lot of these girls’ second or third sport so we’re a little slow coming out of the gates this year but I think we’ll turn it around once our schedule eases up a bit. It’s good to have these games early and learn from our mistakes.”

Year after year, the team has improved with this core leading the way. Three years ago, Riverhead won only one game. Two years ago that number improved to four. Last year, they finished with an overall record of 8-8.

With the Riverhead Athletic Club’s newly formed youth basketball league, there will only be more interest in the sport from an early age.

“It’s hard to be teaching fundamentals at the varsity level but we are doing our best with it,” Ghigliotti said. “I think having an investment in our youth will turn things around. These seniors have already led a change in our program; now we have to keep the momentum.”

Riverhead will return to action and travel to William Floyd Thursday for a 4 p.m. game.