Riverhead stays undefeated in league with 65-45 victory over Smithtown East

Two undefeated League III teams squared off Tuesday at Riverhead High School. A close game was on tap, but projections were stomped out by reality.

And the reality is, Riverhead is the real deal.

The Blue Waves wasted no time jumping out to an early lead against Smithtown East (3-1 League III, 5-3 overall) and kept tacking it on as the game went on to as much as a 30-point lead midway through the third quarter. They cruised to victory, 65-45 in a game that wasn’t really ever close.

“[Smithtown East] wasn’t hitting their shots,” Riverhead head coach Dave Spinella said. “It could’ve easily been a different game if they were hitting their shots. They’re a great shooting team.”

Smithtown’s star All-County player, Abby Zeitsiff was hounded by Dezarae Brown all game, resulting in a poor-shooting effort that produced only six points for the Bulls.

“You’ve got to credit Dez with what she did on defense,” Spinella said. “She shut her down. [Zeitsiff] had no points in the first half.”

Unlike the Bulls, the Blue Waves offense had no problem getting into their sets, and it all started with Faith Johnson-Desilvia.

“When Faith gets to the rim our whole offense changes,” Spinella said. She breaks down defenses at will and either finishes at the basket or dumps it off for an easy layup.

Johnson-Desilvia finished with 15 points and six assists. A regular recipient of her assists was Sam Dunn, who recently committed to LIU Post to continue her basketball career. She scored 24 points and brought down 12 rebounds in the onslaught.

“We just played two of the tougher teams in our league,” Dunn said. “And now that we kind of know that we got it, we should be able to play with confidence from here on out.”

“I’ve been here for four years,” Dunn continued. “It’s great to see how far we’ve come. And hopefully it’ll lead to eventually raising that banner. But it’s one game at a time.”

Riverhead (4-0 League III, 6-2 overall) will travel to Smithtown West on Thursday for a 4 p.m tip.

RiverheadLOCAL photos by George Faella.