Long Beach Girls' Basketball in Playoff Hunt

The Long Beach High School girls’ basketball team is making a run for its first appearance in the Nassau Class AA playoffs in four seasons, after putting together recent back-to-back road wins over Great Neck South and Westbury to close the opening half of the Conference AA-III schedule with a record of 4-3.

Junior Molly Martin scored seven of her career-high 18 points in the third quarter in a 54-31 win against visiting Westbury on Jan. 17, after she scored five of her game-high 14 points in the first eight minutes of the Marines 42-32 win at Great Neck South Jan. 12, according to the Long Beach Herald.

Lady Marines coach Lori DeVivio said:

“It’s going to be an interesting second half. I think if we duplicate what we did in the first half, we’ll have enough wins to make the playoffs but it’s no guarantee.”

After the two previous rebuilding years with freshman-heavy teams, DeVivio during the preseason showed determination to make the playoffs, shooting for a four seed and at least a first-round win with a team that features seven players who returned to form an undersized yet fast and effective squad that she said has “an ability to run, and if we can limit our turnovers, we can win.”

The Marines fell, 30-33, to Carey in a road game Saturday.