West Girls Basketball Opens Season With Loss at Stony Brook School

Despite going into halftime with a 14-8 lead, Smithtown West couldn't hold off Stony Brook School's second half offense as the Bulls fell to the Bears 32-22 in the season opener.

The Bulls (0-1-0) found early success with their inside game, and put the Bears (1-0-0) in early foul trouble. Stony Brook School committed 12 fouls in the first half alone.

Sophomore Melissa Meyers, Smithtown West's high scorer of the game with 6 points, was sent to the line four times off of fouls in the paint.

"I just went up hard every single time and just hoped to get fouled," Meyers said.

Although this worked for the Bulls in the first half, they did not continue to go inside in the second half, which Smithtown West coach Katie Combs said was not a part of the game plan.

"They [Stony Brook School] went into a two-three zone, we went underneath the defense and then when our girls would turn to look they weren't strong enough to the ball," she said. "You want to beat the defense inside-out and since we got no inside play in the second half we couldn't get any outside play."

Combs said the problem of Tuesday's offense was how unselfish her players were and were more willing to pass to a teammate than shoot and take over the team's offense. Conversely, Combs praised the team's defense.

"That was the best defensive game we've ever played, it's just the flipside, we obviously need to score," she said. "We need someone to step up and be a leader and score, our girls are too unselfish."

Although not the leader statistically Tuesday, sophomore Savannah Miller led the team and set the pace for their play throughout the game. Coach Combs was especially proud of her play because it was the first time Miller has started for the Smithtown West varsity team.

"Savannah sets a great pace, she's only a sophomore so I can only expect to see her improve every single day," Combs said. "This was her first start and for her to do that well, especially defensively what she did, she did a great job."

Stony Brook School tripled their first half scoring total in the second half, putting up 24 points. Senior Brannon Burke's aggressive offense in the second half brought the Bears back in the game and ultimately gave them the win.

Burke was one of only two scorers for the Bears, who scored 21 points on the game. Although she put up double-digits for the Bears Tuesday afternoon, she was not willing to accept all the credit for the win and praised the play of her newly formed, young team.

"Our team is very new compared to last year, very young compared to last year, the majority of our team last year was juniors and seniors," Burke said. "Our starting forward is a seventh grader, it's different so we've to adapt to that and I'm proud of the fact that we pulled out the win."

"She's a great floor leader, a great presence, she's versatile, she can go inside, outside and play the one, two, three or four spot," said Stony Brook School coach Amy Helm. "She's definitely our go-to floor leader."

In addition to Burkes 21 points was the only other scorer for the Bears, senior guard Jessica Winston, who added 11 points of her own, all in the second half.

"Jess Winston became much more aggressive away from the ball to establish herself and be ready on a ball reversal off a back screen and be ready to catch and shoot," Helm said of her second half offensive play. "She was a little tentative in the first half, second half was much more aggressive to look for her shot."

The Bulls will face Longwood next away on Dec. 14 at 6 p.m.