Girls basketball:
Despite foul trouble, No. 7 Riverhead knocks out No. 10 Hills East, 64-62

The score was 64-62 and 17 seconds remained in the first round Suffolk AA playoff matchup of No. 7 Riverhead and No. 10 Half Hollow Hills East at Riverhead High School on Friday night.

Hills East hadn’t led all game. But after point guard Faith Johnson-DeSilvia fouled out with over four minutes left on the clock, Rivehead’s ability to break down the full-court press disappeared.

“You can’t put a price on a point guard,” Riverhead Head Coach Dave Spinella said. “I’ve had only four of them in 13 years. They’re so important.”

“She’s like the missing piece to our puzzle,” Sam Dunn said. “We’re just not the same without her.”

Spinella tried subbing her in and out during the fourth quarter but she was eventually called for her fifth as the opposing point guard purposely took position in the paint and drove right into her.

“It was a foul,” Johnson-DeSilvia said. “Not sure about some of the other ones, though.”

Nevertheless Riverhead had to finish. The game came to the breaking point. The thoughts going through Senior Sam Dunn’s head were going all over the place:

“When they started getting close I started to think could it be over?” she said. “In a couple of seconds anything can happen. We can lose this. No we can’t. We can’t lose it. We’re going to win this.”

After all, the Thunderbirds mounted a comeback over the final minutes, cutting an eight-point deficit to just two.

But Riverhead buckled down. Kim Ligon came up with a block with eight seconds left and the Thunderbird miss fell into the hands of Kate McCarney who quickly got fouled. She went to the free-throw line with five seconds remaining. She had scored 11 points already to that point, making three clutch and crisp three pointers. But the hoop played no favorites and both shots went awry.

The ball went out of bounds and the Thunderbirds had one last chance with 1.6 seconds left. The ball was thrown in bounds and a last second attempt from half-court landed short, giving the Blue Waves the win, 64-62.

“We rallied,” Spinella said. “Good teams find a way to win. I don’t care if we win by 100 or by one. We’re going on.”

The bench rushed the court, Johnson-Desilvia among them.

“It’s hard watching them to do it without me because I wanted to be out there,” Johnson-DeSilvia said. “I’m just glad we won.”

Dunn finished with 22 points, 10 rebounds and five steals.

Riverhead will draw No. 2 Commack in the second round. Dunn and the rest of the girls are familiar with them.

“We watched a lot of film on them and me and the girls actually went to a lot of the playoff games last year,” Dunn said. “They won the Long Island championship last year. They’re really good.”

“When I heard that we would have to play Commack next I got a little nervous because they are so good,” she continued. “But as Spin says, ‘Oh my God they’re so good. But don’t forget we’re also good. We’re not the team we once were, where we were scared of big, powerful teams.'”

Because as game-time comes all those thoughts go to rest. And you realize, “people should be scared of us.”

The next round playoff game will be played at Commack High School on Wednesday. The time has yet to be determined.

RiverheadLOCAL photos by George Faella