Samantha Maucere does whatever it takes to get West Babylon girls to win

Samantha Maucere wasn’t going to let one failure deter her from leaving the court victorious. And maybe that’s just the best way to sum up the West Babylon girls basketball team.

Maucere went to the foul line with 9.2 seconds left in the fourth quarter and West Babylon holding a two-point lead. She missed both her foul shots, but Maucere stayed with the play and tracked down the rebound with 3.1 seconds left.

“I was nervous taking those foul shots and when I didn’t make any of them, I knew I just had to get it back so I did,” Maucere said. “The only thing in my mind was I had to get that back for my team. I wanted to win this for us, all I wanted to do was win for my team. That’s what my body and my mind made me do.”

Following a timeout, West Babylon inbounded the ball and dribbled out the final three seconds to preserve a 47-45 home victory over East Islip in Suffolk League III girls basketball action Tuesday.

“Instinctively, she went and made a play,” coach Ron Langella said. “She knew what point we were in the game and I guess she knew it wasn’t going to go in so she followed her shot like we preached and came up with a huge play.”

West Babylon (5-0) and East Islip (4-1) have developed a strong rivalry the last few years. West Babylon defeated East Islip, 44-37, in the Suffolk Class A final last season.

“There’s just been a lot of competition between us, we both always want to win and I think this just shows we are the better team,” senior Lacey Downey said. “We have not lost to them in the past two years and I don’t think we ever will.”

Downey, an All-Long Island selection last winter, had far from her best performance on Tuesday. She finished with 14 points and her shot wasn’t falling as it usually does. But she didn’t let that hinder her in the game’s biggest moments, including driving the basket for a layup to give the Eagles a 46-45 lead with 2:32 left in the fourth quarter.

“I knew we needed a basket and I knew I could do it,” Downey said. “It was great because I was getting frustrated with my shot so to finally get it at a very important time in the game was very important to me.”

“You’re looking at an all-time great athlete and she knows when she needs to do it and she does it,” Langella said. “It’s different with her. You trust the kid 100 percent. … She knew at that time in the game that it was her time to take over.”

West Babylon scored the game’s first 10 points and led 31-23 at halftime. But East Islip stormed back, including taking its first lead (43-42) off a basket by Sara Simonetti (15 points) with 4:24 left in the fourth quarter.

Downey made two free throws before Kaelyn Gordon (18 points) scored in the post to give East Islip a 45-44 lead with 2:51 left in the fourth quarter. Then Downey scored the winning layup and Rebecca Vitale added the game’s final point on a foul shot with 13.7 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Vitale finished with seven points and six steals, Jaelynn Burgess added 11 points and Downey added four steals.

“It’s different when we play (East Islip), there’s no question about it,” Langella said. “And I think it was evident in the end.”

“It’s definitely scary but I wouldn’t want it any other way,” Downey said. “It’s not fun beating a team by 30. It’s the (feeling of) not knowing if we are going to win at the end and the fans going crazy. You can see on each team’s bleachers how much everyone wanted it.”

Maucere added she’s never played in a game like that before. Both teams' benches and fans were loudly into the contest that went down to the final whistle as West Babylon looks to defend its Suffolk Class A title.

“We know what we are,” Langella said. “We aren’t great basketball players, we aren’t skilled basketball players but we’re athletes who don’t want to lose and that’s been evident over the last couple of years. We’ve done a good job of instilling that ‘no loss’ mentality.”