Shoreham-Wading River girls basketball wins first Suffolk Class A title in program history

The Shoreham-Wading River girls basketball players received a text from their coach the night before the biggest game of the season. The photo in there said it all — a banner without a county title.

“That banner kind of stares at you that it’s empty,” coach Adam Lievre said. “And I sent it to them last night and said, ‘There’s one thing missing from the high school gym and hopefully we’d find it here.’”

That banner won’t be empty for much longer as the top-seeded Wildcats defeated No. 2 Kings Park, 63-56, to win the Suffolk Class A girls basketball title — the first county title in program history — at Stony Brook University’s Island Federal Arena Saturday afternoon.

“This is just crazy,” said GraceAnn Leonard, who scored 27 points. “We’re so excited, this is a dream come true for us. Never in school history has (Shoreham-Wading River) girls basketball won a county championship and for our team to be the one to do it is amazing.”

"We knew that we were going to add 2023 to the top of our banner in the high school gym,” said Sophie Costello, who had 16 points. “It was our goal all year.”

Shoreham-Wading River (23-0) advances to play the Nassau Class A champion in the Long Island championship/Southeast Regional Final at 3 p.m. on March 11 at Farmingdale State.

Before then, the Wildcats play Port Jefferson (18-2) in the Suffolk small schools final at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday at Centereach.

And Leonard and Costello were in the middle of many of the game’s defining plays. The Wildcats went on a 17-2 run in the final 5:04 before Kings Park’s Jaxie Cestone hit a three-pointer as time expired.

Leonard hit a three-pointer with 4:28 left to tie the score at 51 for the Wildcats. It was Leonard’s lone three-point attempt in the game but it couldn’t have come at a more important moment.

“She’s probably hit only about 15 threes in her five-year high school career but I remember some of them,” Lievre said. “They usually come in a big moment. She’s a special athlete.”

Costello recorded steals in the next two possessions, including finishing a layup to give the Wildcats a 54-51 lead with 4:03 left in the fourth quarter. Shoreham-Wading River trailed 51-46 with 5:38 left before Annie Sheehan’s layup started the 17-2 run.

“That was huge for us,” Costello said. “A lot of those steals is what gets us going as a team. We struggled a lot to get them today, obviously, Kings Park is a talented team at moving the ball. But once we got those steals, I kind of knew we were going to win the game.”

Cestone had 18 points and Ryan Currier had 15 points and 15 rebounds for Kings Park (19-3).

“We probably played our best quarter of the year in that fourth quarter,” Lievre said. “The final quarter in the biggest game so I couldn’t be prouder of them.”

Leonard had 11 of her 27 points in the first quarter, including the Wildcats’ opening nine points. 

“I knew personally, I had to work as hard as I could and everyone did that, too,” Leonard said. “And combined, we all pulled through.”

Kings Park closed the first half on an 11-2 run to take a 28-26 lead into halftime and Kings Park led 45-44 entering the fourth quarter.

Shoreham-Wading River hasn’t trailed often this season en route to its 23-0 record. But even when facing a five-point deficit with five minutes left in the contest, the Wildcats remained focused on the championship goal.

“That’s what kept us in the game,” Leonard said. “When we were down by a couple — which we never were during the regular season — we just had a drive in us that no other team does and we kept working for it.”