Sports

Riverhead Beats Hauppauge, Moves onto L.I. Title Game

Blue Waves win 60-52 as Shanice Allen scores her 1,000th career point.

The Riverhead Blue Waves girls' hoops team beat the Hauppauge Lady Eagles, 60-52, on Tuesday night to advance to the Long Island Championship game. 

The Blue Waves came out of the gate aggressive, eager to win their first Suffolk County Class AA title in more than 25 years. Riverhead took control of the game when the Lady Eagles ran into foul trouble in the second quarter, giving up six free throws. It allowed Riverhead to extend a two-point lead after the first quarter to a nine-point lead by half.

Riverhead never looked back, and their defense kept Hauppauge from closing the gap.

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The Blue Waves offense was lead by the trio of Shanice Allen, Melodee Riley and Jalyn Brown. Allen scored 24 points with 5 rebounds, followed by Riley with 18 points and Brown scoring 11 points.

Allen scored her 1,000th point of her high school career while taking a free throw in the fourth quarter.

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"Hauppauge did a fantastic job of handling our pressure and hit some big 3's in the second half, but we just kept at it and driving to the basket," said Riverhead head coach David Spinella.

The key behind the Blue Waves win was limiting Hauppauge's lead scorer Julie Williams, Suffolk's leading 3-point shooter, to eight points during the game.

Hauppauge, who led Suffolk in 3-point shooting (124) during the league season, couldn't find the net in in the first half before bouncing back with four in the second half.

Lauren Descalzo led the Lady Eagles with 17 points including two 3-pointers followed by Lindsay Alfano scoring 13 points and Stephanie Peragallo scoring 12 points.

"We just came up short today," said Jamie Edson, Hauppauge's head coach. "It' was a great season overall, but we were just a few point short today."

The loss ended the Hauppauge Lady Eagle's undefeated season, finishing with a 21-1 record.

The Blue Waves will tip off against Baldwin on March 9 against Baldwin, at 7:45 p.m. at Farmingdale State College.

Team 1Q 2Q 3Q 4Q Final score Riverhead 16 11 14 19 60 Hauppauge 14 4 13 11 52


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