Babylon came to Mattituck High School on Thursday night with a pep in their step, matching the division leaders basket by basket in the first half.
The second half, however, wasn’t so close.
The Tuckers (11-1 League VII, 13-1 overall) turned a 20-17 halftime lead into a 30-point blowout in a blink of an eye by playing high-intensity, full-court defense. Mattituck recorded 18 steals to seal another victory over a league foe, 57-28.
“They were picked to win the Class B championship,” Mattituck head coach Steve Van Dood said of Babylon. “They did lose one of their star players but they can definitely play with the best of them. They handle the ball better than any other team in the league.”
Even with the superb ball handling, Mattituck was able to cause havoc with their defense, flooding the passing lanes and poking the ball out at will.
“We’re at our best when we’re forcing turnovers,” Van Dood said. “It always gives us a spark.”
Katie Hoeg led the Tuckers with 16 points. Liz Dwyer and Jane DiGregorio added nine each.
Dwyer may have had a slow night scoring-wise for her standards but she found a way to make an impact in other facets of the game.
“Even though she wasn’t scoring, she was still kept her rebounding going,” Van Dood said. “She was setting screens and getting girls open. She always knows how to do the little things and she’s only a sophomore.”
Now that the Tuckers are down their final stretch of the season with only four games remaining, Van Dood is starting to prep his team for a playoff run which will inevitably start them at the No. 1 seed in Class B.
“We used to do two and a half hour to three hour practices in the beginning of the season,” Van Dood said. “And it’s a long season. So now we’re doing like an hour and a half and we have some fun. Yesterday we did some magic tricks. We know what we’re doing out there and we know what we want to do.”
Mattituck will play Shelter Island next on Saturday at noon.
SoutholdLOCAL photos by George Faella.
