Storming the Beach: Lady Pirates Ride Big First Half Past Long Beach

The Long Beach Lady Marines came out firing in the second half and outscored the Mepham Lady Pirates 31-29. Unfortunately for Long Beach, the Lady Pirates had already opened up a 15-point lead in the first half on their way to Tuesday night’s 58-45 Conference AA-III win.

The game’s first three quarters featured four big runs by both teams. Mepham started the game on a 15-2 run on points from four different players, but Long Beach went on an 11-2 run of its own to cut the lead to 17-13.

Sophomore Samantha Hishmeh score all of her eight points as the Lady Pirates then went on a massive 21-3 run in the second and third quarters. Hishmeh also added six rebounds and four assists.

The Lady Marines followed that up with a 10-2 run, but it wouldn’t be enough to overcome the big deficit.

“We knew what we were looking at coming into it,” Long Beach head coach Lori DeVivio said. “… We’re just looking to stay competitive at this point of the year. Would we like to steal a win? We always do.”

Sophomore Nicole Castaldo finished with a game-high 18 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, while junior Kristen O’Brien added 17 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

Sophomore Molly Martin had a team-high 13 points for Long Beach.

“Every night is a dog fight with some of these teams. … This was a big one because they can shoot, they can shoot well,” Mepham head coach Jim Mulvey said of Long Beach’s play. “They gave Kennedy some problems. They’re not a pushover this team.”

Score: Mepham 58, Long Beach 45

Records: Mepham 11-1 (14-1); Long Beach 3-9 (3-12)

Heroes: Castaldo and O’Brien combined for 35 points. O’Brien got the team started early and helped give the Lady Pirates a huge lead, while Castaldo scored 11 points in the fourth quarter to close things out.

“We kind of said we need to lean on you guys a little at practice,” Mulvey said the duo’s big effort. “We felt like we were in a little bit of a lull. I said it’s up to the captains, and they’re two of our captains. … I think they came out tonight, and they didn’t ball hog or anything like that, but they just kind of found their spots.”

Martin was Long Beach’s most consistent player and hit a couple of important shots early on when her team was struggling.

“Molly is amazing. She plays the one through five positions on the floor and she doesn’t come off of the floor. She played all 32 minutes tonight,” DeVivio said. “… As a sophomore, what more could you ask for? Molly is one of the hardest workers on the floor and one of the hardest workers at practice.”

Turning Point: Mepham’s 21-3 run was the ultimate decider in this game. Long Beach simply did not have enough to get back into the game.

“We had a long talk yesterday at practice about intensity and picking up your teammates and everyone pushing hard and working hard and trying to get yourself better,” O’Brien said. “Everyone came in today with a goal, a specific goal for themselves, just to get better at, and that was our main point.”

Quotable: “Every time [the lead] got to 18 we kind of let them back in with a missed a assignment, a missed rebound or something like that,” Mulvey said. “I love the start, but you have to step on them and finish it, which we didn’t do. We let them back in.”

Bottom Line: It was another rough start for the Lady Marines, but the team has shown a ton of potential and, as one of the youngest teams in Nassau County, will have plenty of time to improve in future seasons.

“It’s not disheartening. It’s inspiring to see them [out there],” DeVivio said. “We won the second half more or less, we’re just a young team. We made some really critical mistakes early on with the pressure and unfortunately we dug ourselves too deep of a hole.”

“It is what it is for the time being, we’re not banging our heads too much over it,” she added. “We’ll just keep going back to the lab and we’ll just keep on pushing.”

The Lady Pirates lost their first game of the season last week to Elmont, but quickly rebounded with wins against Valley Stream Central and now Long Beach.

“It’s a big win, Elmont was definitely a big loss,” O’Brien said. “We knew we had things to work on in practice. So we put that game behind and looked to get better, and that’s exactly what we did.”

Who’s Next? Feb. 10, Valley Stream Central at Long Beach, 4:30 p.m.; Feb. 10, Carey at Mepham, 6:15 p.m. (Senior night)