“They’re coming along,” Samantha James, who coaches East Hampton High’s girls basketball team, said last week after the team had won back-to-back games, a rarity in the program’s recent years. And, moreover, the Bonackers had a chance to make it three in a row Monday at Pierson (Sag Harbor) High School, from which James graduated in 2011.
The wins — over Southampton by a score of 39-18 on Dec. 21, and over Shelter Island here last Thursday by a score of 57-25, a point total that was also newsworthy — improved East Hampton’s record to 2-3 over all. Going into Monday’s game with the Whalers, the team was 1-0 in League VII play, with seven sophomores on its roster, three of whom start.
The boys basketball team, coached by Bill McKee, was 1-5 in League IV play and 3-5 over all as of Monday, having lost last week to Half Hollow Hills West by a score of 69-62 and to Rocky Point by a score of 62-51.
“We’re struggling defensively and we’re not shooting very well,” McKee said by way of explanation. “We shot 32 percent for the game here with Rocky Point on Friday, and that’s not great.”
“The effort is there,” he hastened to add. “But I think the kids are trying too hard. They get frantic and rush their shots. That’s why the shooting percentage is so low.”
A 31-point third quarter by the Colts put East Hampton away at Hills West. “We just fell apart defensively,” said McKee. “They scored 4 points more in that quarter than they had in the entire first half. We fought back in the fourth quarter, but, as has been happening lately, turnovers, missed shots, and giving up offensive rebounds to the opposing team hurt us. But, like I said, the effort is there — we’ll continue to get better.”
“We’ve got to slow it down on offense, and on defense too. Defensively, we’re getting out of position, and on offense, because we’re playing at such a fast pace, our shot selection isn’t good.”
Liam Fowkes led East Hampton with 23 points versus Rocky Point, Toby Foster had 11, Mike Locascio 6, Colin Kelly 5, Zach Dodge 3, and Mason Jefferson 3. The Eagles drained 11 three-pointers, East Hampton seven.
The Bonackers are to play at East Islip Saturday at 1 p.m. On Wednesday they play here at 4 p.m. against Amityville, two of whose players, Amir Dickinson and Seville Williams, were cited as “hardwood heroes” in Sunday’s Newsday. That game will mark the season’s halfway point. “Every game’s been the same — there have been no blowouts,” said McKee. “Anybody can beat anybody else in this league.”
Back to the girls, it was East Hampton 18, Shelter Island 6 after the first quarter here last Thursday, and 27-8 East Hampton at the half, and so it went.
On their way to the win, James’s crew moved the ball well, shot well, and defended well, creating numerous turnovers. Moreover, everybody played. K.K. Moore, a sophomore forward, who has a good stroke, finished with 13 points, as did a fellow forward, Katie Kuneth, a senior who, with Anna Dwyer, captains the team. Nine of the 14 whom James played scored.
Versus Southampton, East Hampton’s first league opponent, Ana McCormack, a sophomore forward, had 10 points and Kuneth had nine.
Kuneth said following last Thursday’s win that “we’ve got a very young team, but we all get along and that’s been showing on the court.”
The three sophomores who have been starting, James said, are Brynley Lys, a guard, Moore, and Gizel Espinal, a guard who shares time with Lydia Rowan, a fellow sophomore.
The roster is rounded out by Susie DiSunno, a junior forward; Rebecca Trowbridge, a senior guard; Leah McCarron, a sophomore forward; Brenda Aylla, a freshman guard; Julia Kuneth, a sophomore guard; Evelin Marin, a junior guard, and Saffron Zeff, a sophomore guard.
In other recent local basketball news, the Bridgehampton High School Killer Bees, the defending boys county Class D champion, lost 75-56 on Dec. 18 to Smithtown Christian, the team the Bees overcame in overtime to win last year’s Class D title.