Sports

Girls Basketball: Winning ugly works for Tuckers

Some wins aren’t pretty. Heck, some wins are just downright ugly, but a win’s a win, right?

Mattituck coach Steve Van Dood wouldn’t argue that point after his high school girls basketball team completed a 51-33 defeat of visiting Babylon Friday night.

A masterpiece it wasn’t.

But a sign of a good team is its ability to win when not playing its best. Mattituck (6-1, 4-0 Suffolk County League VII) was not at its best and was given a battle in the first half by gritty Babylon (2-4, 1-2) in what could be a preview of the Suffolk County Class B final.

Maybe it was the abbreviated pregame warmup that was the problem.

Regardless, with the exception of a brief spell in the second quarter when Babylon took a 17-15 lead on an Amanda Guerra layup, Mattituck never trailed. After shooting 9-for-31 from the field in the first half, Mattituck expanded on its four-point halftime lead.

The Tuckers made 9 of their first 13 field-goal attempts in the second half for a 48-26 cushion. Liz Dwyer scored 14 of her game-high 26 points during that spell. Moments later, Dwyer, who shot 9-for-13 from the field, drilled her third three-pointer of the night for the biggest margin of the game: 23 points.

Shortly after that, Dwyer made her exit with 4 minutes, 17 seconds left in the fourth quarter. The senior forward also had eight rebounds and six pass deflections.

Chelsea Marlborough supplied Mattituck with 10 points and Mackenzie Daly added eight. Jane DiGregorio didn’t score, but had eight assists.

Guerra produced nine points and eight rebounds for Babylon.

Both teams had their sloppy moments. Babylon turned the ball over 26 times and Mattituck committed 17 turnovers.

Mattituck closed out the first half with a straight-on bank shot by Julie Seifert, a pair of free throws by Mackenzie Hoeg and a Dwyer layup. That kick-started an 18-5 run that Babylon couldn’t recover from.

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Photo caption: Mattituck coach Steve Van Dood talks strategy to his players during a first-quarter timeout. (Credit: Bob Liepa)