Elmont must overcome obstacles

New head coach Pete Lawson was happy he would not inherit his predecessor’s headaches, as this winter’s Elmont girls’ basketball team had doubled in size from spring, when exiting head coach Tom Mango’s Spartans – two years removed from back-to-back Long Island Class A crowns – limped to a 4-4 finish with just seven active players.

Sure enough, a new supply of talent did the trick, as Lawson’s restocked Spartans surged into the season 4-2, led by guards Rae Sawyer and Keilah Watkins, and fellow fourth year-starting senior Orobo Ogbovoh at forward. A 54-51 win at Carey on Dec. 14 marked a three-game win streak for Elmont in its Nassau Conference A2 opener, sending the Spartans in high spirits into the holiday break.

But by early January, Lawson would be reaching for the aspirin.

Of the Spartans’ veteran troika, only team No. 2 scorer Ogbovoh (9.3 points per game) remains, as third-place Elmont (8-7, 5-3 A2) finds its forces – all too familiarly – whittled by injury down to eight players entering the stretch. Crucially, Spartans scoring leader Sawyer (11.9 ppg) and catalyst Watkins (7.1 ppg) have been sidelined since mid-December, and neither is certain to return as Elmont – currently in line for a postseason berth – attempts to thwart rivals’ opportunistic bids in the regular season’s closing weeks.

“Missing two key players, it’s a challenge,” Lawson said. “We haven’t really gotten over that hump yet. Especially without Rae, we’re not as competitive as we’d like to be. Her scoring potential and intensity, we haven’t been able to duplicate that. But we’re working on it.”

Ogbovoh – not unaccustomed to carrying the Spartans offensively – had averaged 10.2 points the past two weeks before Elmont’s 55-33 loss at Calhoun Jan. 27. In Sawyer’s stead, juniors Aryanna Pierre (5.6 ppg) and Taylah Farquharson (6.0 ppg) have platooned at point guard for Elmont. Pierre’s 12 points against Sewanhaka Jan. 8, and Farquharson’s 10 against Carey Jan. 19 were season highs for the first-year starters.

“Orobo does her thing,” Lawson said. “You never have to worry about her giving 100 percent, because she does it all the time. Aryanna is capable of running the point guard position effectively. Taylah is a tenacious defender and has nice size and skills at the guard position.”

Though they would need assistance from the stretched-thin Spartans, two teams stand a chance of squeezing Elmont out of the picture. A postseason passport is given to teams who finish top-four in the conference, or with a league record not lower than .500. Both Carey (6-10, 5-6 A2), which lost twice to Elmont, and Roslyn (7-8, 4-5 A2), which lost once, remain very much in contention – with Roslyn getting a chance at revenge hosting Elmont Feb. 11 in the regular-season finale.

“The team right now is learning to jell, building a new cohesiveness,” said Lawson, who said Sawyer (back) could return within a week, but offered no conjecture on Watkins (ankle). “I feel the crew we have can get the job done. They’re confident, and I’m proud of them.”