The Huntington High School varsity girls’ basketball team was simply unstoppable in the season opener on Wednesday afternoon, toppling Hampton Bays, 37-9 in a game that saw 10 Blue Devil players score.
Huntington jumped out to a 10-0 first quarter lead and never looked back in the opening round of the Islip tournament. Paige Lennon and Abby Maichin led the Blue Devils with six points each. Katie Browne, Jordan Forte, Gianna Forte and Junie Nosile all added four points, respectively. Christie Baade dropped three points and Makaylah Frazier, Charlotte Maggio and Emily Plachta had two points apiece.
Lennon had five assists and six steals. Jordan Forte also tallied six steals. Baade and Maggio pulled down eight rebounds each.
Huntington will play Riverhead on Friday at 6 p.m. at Islip in the tournament’s championship game. Lennon, Baade and Alyssa Sorensen are the Blue Devils’ captains.
Now in his ninth year as the Blue Devils’ head coach, Michael Kaplan’s career record improved to 112-50 with the season-opening victory.
Kaplan came to Huntington from cross-town rival Harborfields, where he had been working as an assistant coach since 2006. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in physical education at SUNY College at Brockport in 2005.
In college, Kaplan was Brockport’s starting point guard for four years and helped lead the Golden Eagles to a pair of NCAA tournament appearances, with the team reaching the “Sweet 16” and the “Elite 8” rounds.
Huntington’s 14-player roster includes eighth graders Lauren Bonn and Gianna Forte; freshmen Katie Browne, Makaylah Frazier, Junie Nosile and Emily Plachta; sophomores Alexa Amorison, Jordan Forte and Charlotte Maggio; juniors Abby Maichin and Holly Wright; seniors Christie Baade, Paige Lennon and Alyssa Sorensen.
The Blue Devils will host Farmingdale next Thursday (December 6) in a non-league game. Tipoff is set for 5:45 p.m. League play commences the following Thursday (December 13) when Huntington squares off against visiting Bellport at 5:45 p.m.
