Hewlett reaches a dozen victories

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A cursory glance at the stats seems to tell the entire story.
Five-foot-8 freshman point guard Riley Weiss, standing head and shoulders over all Nassau scorers, lifted Hewlett’s girls’ basketball team to its first postseason in seven years, and its first playoff win in a decade. The three-year varsity ninth-grader was tops in the county averaging 28.3 points per game – providing over half of Hewlett’s offense (53.7 ppg) – with a Nassau-leading 79 3-pointers.
While noting that, “Riley’s numbers speak for themselves,” Hewlett head coach Anthony Scro – whose club went 7-5 in Conference A-3, 12-9 overall – hastened to add that his team’s breakthrough season, which ended with a loss to No. 2 seed Locust Valley in the second round of the Class A playoffs – hinged on a host of players pulling their weight and putting in work to correct the trajectory of the program.
“Since last year we’ve been rebuilding, pushing for a higher level of athleticism and basketball IQ,” the second-year coach said. “We made practices more up-tempo, and faced tough nonleague teams. These girls worked hard to develop the toughness to become a winning team, and a playoff contender.”
From the early going Hewlett gave signs that its seven-year sub-.500 streak would not survive the season, starting out 3-2 in nonleague matchups, all on the road, before dismantling visiting Glen Cove 52-10 in the teams’ conference opener Dec. 18 – a game whose box score encapsulated a rough preview of Hewlett’s whole campaign, with Weiss putting up 22 points as the game’s top scorer, senior forward Eileen Pincus (7 ppg) second with nine points, and sophomore center Molly Williams (8.5 ppg, 10 rebounds per game average) grabbing nine rebounds to go with seven points.

“Riley’s not just a shooter, but a great all-around player,” Scro said. “Eileen gave us great three-point support and defense. Molly’s an awesome leader and dominant on the boards. We expect great things from her over the next two years.”
After a playoff-clinching 49-30 home win over Roslyn Feb. 5, Hewlett traveled for a final league win against Jericho, 58-44, two days later. The game saw Williams flex for a season-high 17 points while matching her season-best mark of 13 rebounds, with junior forward Akayla Mack also setting a season high with 12 boards. “Akayla brings incredible energy to the court,” Scro said. “She’s awesome on defense.”
Weiss, who twice reached her season high of 40-points, scored 34 points in 15th-seeded Hewlett’s 63-35 first-round playoff win over No. 18 Garden City Feb. 14, with Williams chipping in 14 points and Pincus eight. In the second round, host Locust Valley knew well what its mandate was, and succeeded in collapsing on Weiss to limit the scoring champ to nine points as her club fell 71-31.
“They keyed on Riley and we didn’t capitalize on opportunities,” Scro said. “But it was a good learning experience. We set the bar high this season. With a lot of these kids coming back next season, we want to set the bar even higher.”