Thursday, February 6, 2025
After its 68-54 victory over New Hyde Park last Saturday, the Mepham girls’ basketball team is on a five-game win streak with an 8-3 overall record.
Makayla Daube and Sophia Beck posted double-doubles to lead Mepham to the win, with Daube scoring 26 points and grabbing 15 rebounds, and Beck adding 20 points and 10 rebounds. Daube also crossed the 1,000-career point threshold.
Overall, Mepham head coach Jim Mulvey is happy with how the team is looking so far, given their rocky start to the season for a few reasons.
“We’re doing okay, we started off in the Wantagh Tournament, we schedule a hard beginning,” he explained.
Uniquely, Mepham’s star Daube is also an intense volleyball player, one who was part of the successful county title run in 2024.
“We had a bunch of kids coming out of volleyball that went to the Long Island championship, so our top player had a little bit of a tweaked ankle, [so] we got to always get into form with our program,” Mulvey explained.
“Because most of our team is not basketball-first kids, it takes a little while to get into the basketball mode,” added assistant coach Rich Hinnerschietz.
“We have a [Division] 2 basketball player in Daube but we have mostly lacrosse players, soccer players, volleyball players, so to get them into basketball form it takes a little bit of time,” Mulvey confirmed. “It feel like we hit our stride now.”
As the season is moving along, something that the coaching staff realized it that while they have seven seniors, the cast is still rotating as to who gets minutes to best execute game plan.
“We’ve tried to run our fast break, which is doing wonders, we’re scoring a lot in transition,” Mulvey said. “We’re pressing more, we don’t really want to get set in a half-court offense, we want to kind of run and get opportunities in fast-break. So for the most part working on our fast-break and defense, you have to work on defense everyday.”
Senior Sierra Barbosa has a key role in leading the team as the go-to point guard, with Mulvey singing her praises in the offensive and defensive work she puts up.
The senior leadership is really what’s helping this team jell.
“They’re definitely battle-tested, it’s just us trying to get all of the puzzle pieces mixed in, but the seniors definitely provide that ‘been there, done that’ [element],” Mulvey said. “The leadership of Sophia Beck [and] Daube who are our two captains, and Grace Skulavik, they’re tested from last year, having been in this environment, playing AAU basketball, they’re used to this environment they really don’t get phased anymore.”
The upperclassmen don’t overshadow the underclassman as Mulvey explained that they have a buddy system, where players are paired up across ages to foster growth and connection.
“They have to work together, that’s their buddy for the year, and [upperclassmen] have to show leadership and take them under their wing,” he explained. “A kid like Mia Troiano is a 10th grader, she stepped up and had six threes in a game. We have Bree McGovern who’s a freshman, who was up and down with us as varisty, JV with us in the middle school, and she’s playing well.”
