New-Look Southampton Girls Basketball Team Will Rely on Its Eight Seniors This Season

​For the first time in five years, the Southampton girls basketball team will not have Maddie Taylor dribbling the ball up the court effortlessly, as she did all those years.

What’s more, the Mariners will also be without Gabriela Arnold, a four-year starter, and additional key starters in Carli Cameron and Hallie Beeker, all of whom helped the Mariners return to the postseason after a somewhat prolonged absence — Southampton lost to Center Moriches in last year’s Suffolk County semifinal.

Due to those losses, head coach Richard “Juni” Wingfield said there’s really no way around the fact that his team is going to have to play differently.

“We have to be a different team because of the kids who left,” he said. “Their engines were always running in such a fashion to be aggressive. That allowed us to do what we do best: man-to-man defense. And if we didn’t get in foul trouble, we could play with just about any team. So now I have to really gauge everything differently.”

Even with those losses, the girls are a senior-laden team, with eight on the roster. But it’s sophomore Daelyn Palmore, who was co-League VII Rookie of the Year with Port Jefferson’s Camryn Spiller last season, who might be one of the most talented players on the court for Southampton on most nights — and she’ll take over primary ball-handling duties from Taylor on offense.

She’ll be leading the way along with the team’s four captains in seniors Cece Ginsberg, Danna Game, Paige Garvin and Juliette Archer. Fellow seniors Hailey Cameron, Amy Jimenez, Stella Lima, Juliette Kearns and Kiley Maloney, juniors Amadyah Palmore, Daelyn’s younger sister who is a junior, and Annie Hattrick and sophomores Tatiana Fernandes and Mya Halsey round out the roster. Overall, numbers are very encouraging, Wingfield said, with 14 players on varsity and at least that many more on JV.

Southampton already played its first game of the season, a nonleague contest at Hampton Bays on November 21. Missing both Archer and Garvin for the game, Hampton Bays sophomore Asha Pensa-Johnson proved to be a lot to handle for the Mariners, who trailed, 28-13, at halftime and were down as much as 18 points in the first half.

But Southampton went to its full-court man-to-man defense in the third quarter and outscored the Baymen, 18-3, to climb back into the game. Eventually, Hampton Bays won, 41-34, but Wingfield said he learned a lot about his team.

“I’ve decided to teach them how to play, not teach them plays,” Wingfield said. “We’re almost a week to two weeks in, and I trust that they’re smart. Paige, Donna, Juliette, Cece — they’re all smart, and while I have had kids who are basketball players in the past, I haven’t had a lot of kids who have been able to use their imagination.”

Port Jefferson will continue to be cream of the crop when it comes to League V this season, Wingfield said, but the Royals are a Class C team, so, in that regard, the Mariners will not have to compete against them come playoff time.

Southold/Greenport is the reigning Class B county champion, having defeated Center Moriches for the title last season, and will continue to push Southampton this season, along with Mattituck and Babylon. Pierson/Bridgehampton, a Class C team, also plays in the league along with Class D Smithtown Christian and Shelter Island, and East Hampton has been alternatively placed in the league again but is still not playoff eligible.

“We’re going to try to continue to allow kids to capitalize on the fact that they’re multi-sport athletes,” Wingfield said. “We just want them to be able to go out and play basketball. And even though they played multiple sports, their IQ of the game is pretty high. Some of that comes from experience and familiarity, but that way they don’t have to do too much.

“Can we compete? We’re going to be competitive, because that’s Southampton girls basketball,” he continued. “We’ll be right there, competitive with everybody, and anything can happen on any given night, as we’ve seen in the past just last year. It’s truly a situation where we’re going to rely on our experience, with eight seniors coming back, and that’s the key. Anything can turn a game.”

Southampton’s first six games are all nonleague matchups at home. The Mariners were slated to play Wyandanch on Monday night and will host Bellport this Thursday, December 1, at 6 p.m. before hosting Elwood-John Glenn this Tuesday, December 6, again at 6 p.m.

The Mariners first league game isn’t until December 13, when they play at Center Moriches.