It was a long night for the WHB Hurricanes Varsity Basketball team on Tuesday, February 8th, as they were crushed by the Bayport-Blue Point Phantoms, 67-45.
The game started out as a nightmare for the Canes, who quickly found themselves down 14-2 in the middle of the first quarter. After that they just couldn’t get anything going for the rest of the night.
Down 34-20 at halftime, coach Bill Hempfling had not given up hope, telling his players that they needed to chip down the lead and keep Bayport’s big men off of the offensive boards.
However, this proved to be impossible as Bayport’s big man, Senior Gary Fairly, nabbed a game-high 13 rebounds along with 18 points, while Guard Ross Drzal of Bayport had a game-high 21 points. The second half was more of the same struggle for Westhampton, who never came within 10 points after halftime as the game ended in a 67-45 loss.
Sophomore Brian Corrigan led the hurricanes with 12 of their 45 points as his brother, senior Michael Corrigan, added another 10.
After the game, when asked about why the team struggled so much, Coach Hempfling said, “I think Bayport-Blue Point took us out of our comfort zone offensively with their defensive pressure, thus making it difficult to score.”
On February 15th, Amityville crushed the Canes’ hopes of making the playoffs. They were defeated 88-46 and eliminated from playoff contention.
Next year’s squad is going to be entirely different for Westhampton as they only have one returning starter coming back.