A game that was dominated by Mattituck early on became a closer game in the second half as the Southold offense came alive but it was just too much Liz Dwyer for the Settlers to come out on top.
Dwyer scored 22 points to lead Mattituck to the victory, 41-33 at Southold High School on Wednesday night.
Shots just weren’t falling in the first half for Southold (1-1 League VII, 1-2 overall) who just seemed unlucky at times.
“It looked like there was a lot of nervousness out there,” first year Southold coach Chris Golden said. “We didn’t look confident offensively and that’s something we’re going to need to work on.”
Mattituck (3-0 League VII, 4-0 overall) came out strong on defense and just started to pour it on as Dwyer and Katie Hoeg (15 points) took turns finding the bottom of the basket.
“Dwyer just came to play today,” Mattituck head coach Steve Van Dood said, “She showed her ability to make threes and also drive and get to the line.”
The Tuckers went into halftime leading, 20-8.
Whatever Golden told his team at halftime seemed to work as the Settlers came out gunning in the third quarter. With the help of Madison Tabor (11 points), Angelica Klavas (8 points) and Ali Credi (10 points) Southold got as close as 23-20 before Dwyer took over the game.
“To be neck and neck with a team like Mattituck speaks volumes for what we’re trying to do this year,” Golden said. “We got good looks but in the end we just missed too many shots.”
Van Dood is pleased with what he has seen thus far from his girls.
“We’re undefeated so something is definitely clicking with these girls,” he said. “We have a lot of girls coming back with experience this year so we hope that can put us in the county championship this year. That’s the goal. But we have to take it a game at a time.”
Mattituck will host Center Moriches on Monday with a game time of 5:45 p.m. Southold/Greenport will get their chance at Center Moriches first as they’ll matchup this Saturday at noon.
SoutholdLOCAL photos by George Faella
