Commack Stuns Huntington in
Suffolk Final
Heather Forster scored the first basket of the game, but it was all downhill from there for the Huntington High School girls’ basketball team, which was upended by Commack in the Suffolk Class AA final, 54-37 before a crowd of about 700 at Ward Melville.
It wasn’t supposed to end this way for the Blue Devils, who came into the county final as the No. 1 seed with a 21-0 mark. Huntington’s high octane offense simply disappeared. The team scored just five points in the first quarter and only four in the second for a total of nine at halftime.
Trailing 23-9 early in the third quarter, the Blue Devils offered few signs of life. At one point in the second half, Huntington’s deficit ballooned to 23 points. In a game with eight minute quarters and with a moribund offense, it was simply too much of a gap to close. Still, the team tried.
Huntington fans remained hopeful that somehow the Blue Devils could pull off a miracle. A large contingent of students rode a fan bus from the school and the group cheered every rebound and basket, but as the clock ticked down the task began to appear impossible.
Commack (21-1) hit seven three-point baskets and the Cougars’ defense kept Forster (15 points) and fellow senior forward Samantha Lynch (12 points) in check most of the game. The Blue Devils scored only three points from the foul line – all by Forster.
Brooke Baade hit a pair of three-pointers for Huntington. Katie Reilly and Katie Nugent added two points apiece. Head coach Mike Kaplan tried to rally his players during a series of timeouts, but the Blue Devils seemed out of sync. The team’s usual fast paced offense was nowhere to be found and its suffocating defense never really materialized.
Reilly said the final outcome was a combination of Huntington having a bad night and Commack being a very good team. “Today was just not our day,” the junior said. “Nothing was going in and it definitely didn’t help that they couldn’t miss.”
Commack’s 15-4 second quarter run proved to be Huntington’s undoing. The Blue Devils seemed to sag and were unable to mount an effective rally. The Cougars’ Chelsea Schultz had a team-high 14 points, including three three-pointers. Jackie DelliSanti and Jillian Spagnuola added 11 points each. Casey Hearns popped in seven points.
Huntington was outscored in every quarter except the final frame, in which they nipped Commack, 15-14. When Kaplan removed the starters with about a minute remaining in the game, many in the crowd stood and cheered in a tribute to a set of players that otherwise enjoyed a magnificent season.
The loss stunned the Blue Devils and their fans. Huntington has a very good team, to be sure, but on this one night, Commack simply played a better game.
For players who put their heart and soul into the team, the loss stung. The Blue Devils are a proud bunch and their string of consecutive victories over the past three months carried them into the state rankings. But, this night belonged to the Cougars, who will now advance to the Long Island regional final next Friday night at LIU Post at 7:30 p.m. The winner of that game gains a berth in the state semifinals in Troy.