Girls Basketball Open Season With Nail-Biting 35-32 Win Over Islip

hit a tie-breaking jumper with just seconds remaining to give the girls varsity basketball team a 35-32 win over Islip in its season opener Wednesday evening.

On a night where both teams struggled from the field, Weir had 13 points and fellow junior Kayla Hunter added 11 to lead the Lions to a hard fought victory in the final moments of Wednesday's contest.

"I thought it was a great effort," head coach Chris Scharf said. "We preach hustle and defense and with this being our first game, we might not have all the offense and defense we want quite yet. They came out, played with a lot of heart, a lot of hustle and they did it for 32 minutes."

The Lions led 26-24 at the start of the fourth quarter and expanded their lead to six before allowing six straight points as Islip tied the game. Junior Kayley Sullivan hit two free throws with a minute left before Islip tied it up again. After Weir's jumper, Islip lost the ball and was forced to foul Lorraine "Rainy" Hodgson. Hodgson hit the free throw to make it a three point game with just over four seconds left as Islip wasn't able to get a shot off before the buzzer sounded.

"I think one thing we've got to do since we're a smaller team is to always be aggressive," Scharf said. "Especially offensively, taking the ball to the hoop and trying to get to the line as much as we can. We usually shoot around 60-70 percent and tonight we weren't up there so we have a little work to do with that."

Hodgson had four points in the game. Sullivan (three) and Briana Frame (four) were the only other Lions to score. West Islip returns to action at home on Friday, Dec. 3 against Smithtown East. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

"I think we've got a long way to go still," Scharf said. "We're happy to get a win; especially the first one to get that out of the way, but there's still things offensively and defensively we need to work on."