Balanced Attack Leads Westhampton Beach Girls Basketball Past Southampton

For a squad that’s a mix of young and old, experienced and not, the Westhampton Beach girls basketball team is already looking like a veteran group, and one that’s been playing together for some time.

It could be seen in the communication, the connection of passes, the defense, the rebounding and scoring of each of the Hurricanes in their 52-18 nonleague win over Southampton on December 29.

“They play really well together,” head coach Katie Peters said. “Something we talk about often is being a well-balanced and well-rounded team — not relying on one individual player. Each game, someone different is stepping up and that’s huge for us moving forward. Everyone’s stepped into their roles and it’s full steam ahead.”

Eight different athletes ended up on the stat sheet, but leading the charge this time, metaphorically and physically, was junior Jane Atkinson. Her game-high 15 points nearly secured the Hurricanes (8-2 overall, 3-0 in League IV) the win. She propelled the team to, and capped off a 15-0 game-opening scoring spurt with a 3-point shot from the left corner.

“It’s nice to get back into it and come away with a win over break,” Atkinson said. “We did a great job of seeing the floor and seeing the open spots, and a lot of our shots fell.”

With the Mariners (3-7 overall, 1-3 in League V) being in a smaller conference, the junior said the team was laser-focused on using the matchup as an opportunity to practice plays, move the ball and settle into a rhythm on offense and defense. The Hurricanes did all of that and more. Not only did the team go on its double-digit tear, it utilized trap-style pressure defense to force turnovers and convert those possessions into points.

“This was our first game where we had a blowout — every other game has been pretty close — so it’s relieving,” said eighth-grader Kate Sweet, who finished with 13 points, five rebounds and three assists.

But Southampton also showed some bright spots — especially noticeable was the beyond-the-arc shot of junior Annie Hattrick, who quite literally scored a hat trick with three three-pointers in her team’s loss. She stopped the bleeding by countering Atkinson’s make with a trifecta of her own.

“She’s got a shot, she just needs to take the shot,” Southampton head coach Richard “Juni” Wingfield said. “Annie is just beginning to believe in herself. Success rewards confidence.”

Westhampton Beach was up, 19-6, after eight minutes, and led, 27-8, by halftime. Southampton saw more three-point shots from Hattrick, who took her own steal and converted it into a buzzer-beating attempt to end the first stanza, and junior Amadyah Palmore (five points) midway through the third. But Sweet answered Palmore’s shot that quarter with one of her own, and her older sister Shannon (four points), a sophomore, dished the ball to freshman Jasmine Taylor (10 points, eight rebounds) for a score before swishing her second of two free-throw attempts to put the Hurricanes ahead, 33-11.

“We started off in an aggressive form,” said senior Kylah Avery (six points). “We’re not the tallest of teams, so we make up for that with the way we play together.”

Wingfield said he’s proud of his girls, who added two more points in the third on a Daelyn Palmore jumper, and five more in the fourth quarter on Hattrick’s last three-pointer and a Paige Garvin bucket.

“We played the best we could, and that’s all I ask of them,” Wingfield said. “Westhampton is bigger, stronger and faster. I told them at halftime I wanted them to erase the score in their heads and go out and execute, and they did. We took good shots. We get an ‘A’ for effort. They didn’t give up.”

Atkinson said the energy surrounding and amongst her and her teammates should take them far this season.

“I think the future is bright,” the junior said.

Peters agrees, so long as her girls continue to learn from each contest, and take things one game at a time.

“They’re starting to grasp how each other moves on the court, and I think it’s showing,” the coach said. “If one person is off on a given day, some other girl picks up their weight.

“Our older players have really stepped up to be great leaders, and our younger players have settled in nicely and are not playing as if they’re younger,” she added.

Avery, who has been on the team since she was a freshman, when it won the school’s first Suffolk County championship, believes this group has what it takes to do it again.

“I’d love to see us get there again,” she said. “I do see us getting there.”