Though Riverhead’s Sam Dunn doesn’t wear glasses and may very well have 20/20 vision, her production on the court against West Islip proved she can not only see but score and rebound, too.
Dunn finished with 21 points and a career-high 20 rebounds, something you rarely see in high school basketball.
“I had 20 rebounds?” Dunn responded after hearing about her feat. “Wow. I can’t believe it.”
She may not believe it, but everyone else did. Her dominating presence helped lead the Blue Waves to a 56-49 victory, improving Riverhead’s league record to 5-1. Her fearlessness is obvious and when her confidence is flowing, there’s little you can do to stop her.
“I started out on varsity as a freshman and I was always scared to take a shot and gave it to other people because I didn’t want to mess up,” Dunn said.
Oh, how times have changed. Now, when she gets the ball, she almost always thinks she can score.
“If you want something, you go get it,” Dunn said. “And I want this more than I want to breathe. It’s a mindset where you don’t care if you miss a shot because you just can get it the next time.”
Riverhead (5-1 League III, 6-4 overall) looked loose and determined to win from the start of the game. Coming off of their first league loss against Copiague, they knew the time was right to bounce back.
“We could have beat Copiague but we had one bad quarter,” head coach Dave Spinella said. “We won the other three quarters.”
Things began to look eerily similar against West Islip (3-4, 4-7) as the Lions held Riverhead to only two third quarter to tie the game at 29 before Faith Johnson-DeSilvia sunk a three at the buzzer to take a slim lead going into the fourth quarter.
“That shot was big for us,” Spinella said. “Even though you look at it and say what’s the big deal, two or five points, it’s still a bad quarter but it got us going again.”
Riverhead went on to score 24 points in the fourth quarter.
Johnson-DeSilvia went on a roll in the fourth, contributing two of her game-high six steals while stringing together a few crucial points to hold the Lions off. She finished with 11 points, five rebounds and four assists to go along with her defensive prowess.
Kate McCarney chipped in eight points from long range, finding the bottom of the net with ease, doing what she does best. Kim Ligon had an-all around game pulling down rebounds, dishing the rock, coming up with steals and overall controlling the pace of the game. Amanda Baron scored six points and Dezarae Brown scored four, both being key contributors on the boards in key situations.
“Everyone did what they needed to do today,” Spinella said. “We don’t ask kids to do anything outside of what they’re capable of doing. Faith was play-making, Kate was hitting shots, Kim was just being that calming force we need her to be. She always had strong possessions and put the ball where it needed to be, made the right reads, always in the right place and Dez was rebounding, Sam was scoring (and rebounding) and Amanda had put-some backs and Jo (Messina) was defending. Everyone did their part and that’s what has to happen to become a well-oiled machine.”
Riverhead faces Newfield on Tuesday at home. Game time: 4 p.m.
RiverheadLOCAL photos by George Faella
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