Waves’ season ends with first-round loss in Kings Park

Building a champion doesn’t happen overnight.

Riverhead head coach Dave Spinella is well aware of that.

“I told these girls, ask Melodee, Shanice and Jalyn about their first experiences with the playoffs,” Spinella said, following their 69-51 first-round defeat to Kings Park on Tuesday. “We got blown out by 30 [points] three times in the playoffs before we won the Long Island Championship and made it upstate.”

It’s a process. Riverhead (11-8) started three freshman and two juniors this season. All will return next year. But losses still hurt. As they re-entered the court at Kings Park High School following Spinella’s final speech of the season, many, if not all, the girls had tears in their eyes.

A season that started in the summer with camps and leagues, a group of determined girls came together this season to become something great. They all committed to what Spinella was selling and in turn, a 3-win team improved to a true threat, finishing second in league III and making the playoffs.

Not only that, at halftime No. 11 Riverhead was still neck-and-neck with No. 6 Kings Park, 30-25, before falling apart in the third quarter.

“To turn a three-win team into a playoff team that competed with a offensive juggernaut like Kings Park is unbelievable,” Spinella said. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of, but we just have to get back to work. We have all the tools to be right where we want to be next year.”

Sam Dunn was nothing short of spectacular in the game and she did everything she could to keep the Blue Waves in it. She was on the receiving end on hard foul after hard foul and by the end of the game, she had an icepack on her elbow and was limping.

“I think we worked extremely hard for coming in as underdogs,” Dunn said, who scored a game-high 20 points to go along with her 15 rebounds. “We gave them a run for their money in the first half. They were just the better basketball team today.”

But even Dunn knows that this year was still part of the building process. There wasn’t a lot of expectations for the Blue Waves this season but that will all change next year. They wouldn’t have gotten to the playoffs if these girls didn’t put in the work in the offseason.

“It’s unbelievable how much we improved over one season,” Dunn said. “Every one of us did our part to get us here. We got to live this experience. Most of them have never played a playoff basketball game. And even though we lost, it’s more about the story — our story of progress.”

“This loss is going to fire us up coming into next season,” Dunn continued. “Our whole lineup comes back and I expect us to be dominant. It’s amazing what an offseason can do and if you look at me a year ago or two years ago, the transformation is tremendous. You don’t even recognize yourself.”

Next year the freshman trio of Kate McCarney, Kim Ligon, and Faith Johnson-DeSilvia will be sophomores with a taste of playoff basketball in their mouths.

“I made my biggest improvement from freshman year to sophomore year and if they work as hard as I did, which I know they will because they want this, we will be incredible,” Dunn said,

Sam Shultz led Kings Park (15-4) with 16 points.