Sachem East Girls End Regular Season with Big Win Over Brentwood

It was senior night for the varsity girls basketball team at Sachem East High School and the team lived up to the occasion as they defeated the Brentwood Indians 59-33 to finish their regular season at 13-1 and take the League I title.  The Arrows took a 10-0 lead in the first quarter never looked back, leading by 8 points or greater for the remainder of the game.

The Heroes: As usual it was Meagan Doherty that was leading the Arrows on the scoreboard.  She scored 21 points and also contributed with 4 assists.

Samantha Drake also had a nice night as she scored 8 buckets and lead the team with 6 rebounds.  

Victoria Hassett empitomized the evening for her team as she planted her feet and took a hard charge from Brentwood’s Adriana Grant.  She got right up after hurting her arm and came out of the game to a standing ovation from her team, finishing the game with 7 points.

“I took a charge,” said Hasset with an icepack on her arm after the game.  “I set myself and I got it and that’s what I’m able to do sometimes.”

The Turning Point: East seemed to be running away with the game as it went into halftime up 15, but Brentwood came out firing in to start the second half and scored the first 7 buckets of the period to cut the lead to 8.  East head coach Matthew Brisson quickly called a timeout and it seemed to do the trick.  

“We talked about concentration in so many words,” said Brisson.  “We talked about how the game is not won in the first quarter.”

In one of the more impressive plays of the game, the team hit all 5 players with some quick passing and Doherty put up a layup to stop the Brentwood comeback.
That sparked an 18 point 3rd quarter for East en route to the win.

Quotable: “Senior night is a special night for the kids,” said Brisson, “but it can be a distraction to an extent.  There’s so much emotion that’s behind it and the kids want to do a nice job, but the tough thing to keep focused on because there’s a game to be won too and that game secures a league championship.  There were points in the game where our concentration lapsed, but that’s the nature of a young team.  But in the end I think we’ve matured in the end coming through a lot of injuries and hardships and I’m looking forward to see who we get in the playoffs.”

The Bottom Line: As  Brisson said after the game, this is a team that isn’t based on one player as it may have been last year with Kristen Doherty leading the way, but one based upon the sum of it’s parts.  It’s a strong team that utilizes tremendous teamwork to win big games.  Moving into the playoffs, East has the experience as they won the state finals last year, but they’ll have to do it by working together more than ever.  They have plenty of talent however, and a coaching staff that is up to the task.

Who’s Next?: The playoffs start Saturday, Feb.19.  Games and seeding have yet to be determined.