Girl’s Basketball Breakdown
The West girls basketball season looked promising as they won their first scrimmage against Stonybrook. This helped to boost their confidence; however, sadly the girls have not won another game since then. Losing to Hauppauge, Copiague, and Huntington the team hasn’t been able to re-discover that spark that they had the night they played Stonybrook.
The girls’ first scrimmage got the girls off to a good start. Hills crushed Stonybrook in the first quarter. Despite Stonybrook’s competitive crowd, the girls were able to uphold a winning mentality and make it out on top in the second and third quarter. The final score was a victory of 31 to 17. Team captain and Senior Brittany Smith stated, “I was happy the all our hard work paid off and hope to continue to work hard and win for the rest of the season.”
Girl’s basketball had an unfortunate upset at an away game in Copiague with a loss of 29 to 63. In the first quarter Hills West ended with six points but it wasn’t enough to top Copiague’s score. The crowd became more and more rowdy by the minute, yelling at referees and cheering their hearts out, and the girls tried to block it out and stay focused on the game. Despite the crowd, the players were able to shine like team captain and Junior Sydney Sodine who had 13 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists. The score did not reflect the effort that the team put into the game. Team captain and Senior Danica Vasa was able to grab three rebounds and Sophomore Jenna Marinis had seven points with 3 assists. Even with these attempts and efforts the girls lost.
In the girl’s game against Hauppauge at home unfortunately didn’t end as well as they would have hoped. The game ended with the win going to Hauppauge by 34 points. Coach Mouzakes and assistant Coach Dittrich continued to encourage the girls to do their best and push forward. Team captain and Senior Brittany Smith was able to score nine points for the team but wasn’t enough to seal a victory for Hills West. In the last quarter Hauppauge celebrated their victory but Senior Christa Rettinger claims with an optimistic attitude “our season isn’t over for awhile and I believe in my team, myself, and my coaches” and ignored the score of 22 to 56.
In the team’s more recent home game against Huntington, the spark did not return yet and the girl’s lost 27 to 34. In the first quarter west led by three points. The momentum was able to keep them ahead by two points in the second quarter. West lost their power and fell apart in the third quarter as Huntington led by 12 points. In the final quarter Huntington won by 7 points. Players such as Sydney Sodine who was able to score 10 points for the team and Sophomore Francesca Casalino who earned 7 points for the team were able to help keep Hills West in the game. New varsity player, Freshman Brittany Hodge was able to gain 6 points for the team and Senior Christa Rettinger scored 4 points for the team. Despite the girl’s losses, they are strong and determined enough to keep on pushing for another victory.
