Shorthanded VSC shows grit

Valley Stream Central’s girls’ basketball team lost a hard-fought battle against Westbury on Feb. 1, as the Eagles fell short by the score of 43-39.

Despite the unfortunate ending, the girls put up a terrific fight and made it a closer game than anyone would have expected following a tough first half. Considering its past battles in the last week or so, including a victory over Hicksville 24 hours earlier, Valley Stream Central head coach Malyssa Thorngren said depth was a factor.

“We have a short bench,” Thorngren said. “Tonight, I think we had 8. We had a tough matchup last night but I think that’s the issue is we were gassed.”

Despite the fatigue, the team was able to lock in well enough to make the game interesting. In the first half, neither team was able to find much rhythm offensively, which is reinforced by the fact that the Eagles only scored 15 points in the first half. Part of this was due to the box and one defense placed on star player senior Ariana Haughton by Westbury. She still had 7 points and demonstrated impressive playmaking capabilities, but the immense full-court defensive attention placed on her kept the ball out of her hands frequently.

With Westbury intentionally scheming Haughton out of certain half-court and full court sets, this specific game conditions gave ample opportunities for other Valley Stream Central players to step up and compensate. Senior guard Jhanelle Small did a great job letting Westbury’s defense come to her, as most of her 11 points came from wide open three pointers that propelled the Eagles’ fourth-quarter run that kept the game in striking distance Seniors Faizah Munawar and sophomores Faizat Shekoni each chipped in with 8 points each.

The Eagles (2-7 in conference games) did an admirable job defensively and on the boards, but their main detraction was their inability to contain Westbury guard Kirina Azemar, who had 26 points and essentially took them game over down the stretch. The Eagles should be commended for how hard they fought to stay in this game when there were certain junctures where a close game looked unattainable, but ultimately Azemar’s ability to initiate offense was too much to withstand.

COVID-related obstacles have kept Central from operating at full strength more often than not. “We’ve been in and out with everything going on,” Thorngren said. “I think this year we’ve played two games with our full complement of players. Between COVID and people being quarantined we have not strung together any number of games where we’ve had our full complement of players.”

In the 51-38 victory over Hicksville on Jan. 31, Haughton hit for 19 points and Munawar added 9.

Thorngren said: “We are finally starting to make some improvements because are finally getting kids at practices and the games. If we could have strung this together earlier, I think we would have progressed a little better but it is just the type of season it’s been.”