Bees’ll Be Back, Whalers Too

   The Killer Bees of Bridgehampton had, according to Carl Johnson’s assistant, Joe Zucker, a pretty good chance to win Saturday’s state Class D Southeast regional playoff game against Livingston Manor.

    The Bees, who wound up losing 69-53, took a 2-point lead into the halftime break, and were confident, “but our lack of experience and failure to get back on defense a few times in the second half turned the tide,” said Zucker.

    Caanan Campbell, who Zucker thinks ought to make all-county, finished “a great career” with 21 points, Jason Hopson, a junior forward, had 12, as did Josh Lamison, one of two eighth graders — the other is the point guard, Tylik Furman — who started this season. “Our two eighth graders played really well,” said Zucker. “Josh had countless rebounds to go with his 12 points.”

    With “four good players coming back — Jason, Josh, Tylik, and, hopefully, Davion Cooper — we should compete again to go upstate next year. I think what hurt us this year was our lack of experience. Eleven of Livingston Manor’s 12 players were seniors.”

    In other recent postseason action, the Pierson (Sag Harbor) High School Whalers, who won Suffolk’s Class C championship — the first such a Pierson boys team has won since 1994, when the Whalers, then led by Tyler Ratcliffe, won the D title — were ousted 63-27 in the Long Island final by East Rockaway. Pierson went into the game without its sparkplug sophomore point guard, Ian Barrett, who was sidelined by an ankle injury.

    A Whaler partisan, when asked for a recounting, said, “We just didn’t have any life.”

    As is the case with Bridgehampton, most of Pierson’s players — all of whom play the year round — will be back next winter.