Bridgehampton Bees Another Step Closer to State Finals
The Bridgehampton Killer Bees waltzed to a 67-50 win over Eldred in the state's Class D Southeast regional boys basketball final played Tuesday at Suffolk Community College-Selden.
Eldred, the Rockland County champion, had one good shooter in David Powers, who could hit off the dribble, but was otherwise unimpressive.
As for the Bees, their active defense produced a lot of turnovers in this ho-hummer, but not as many transition baskets as their coach, Carl Johnson, would have liked. Bridgehampton wasn't great from 3-point range either, though the good news was that its 10 treys (out of 37 attempts) were distributed among four players — Elijah Jackson, Matt Hostetter, Tylik Furman, and Nykell Dean.
The defending state champs extended their lead to 25-11 on an 8-0 spurt with which they began the second quarter, a skein during which Jackson knocked down two 3s and Furman, the point guard, drove authoritatively to the hoop.
It was pretty much over after that. The Bees were up by 15 at the half. Eldred cut the lead to 9 twice early in the third, but then two 3s by Hostetter kicked the margin back up to 15, and soon after he was awarded three free throws for having been fouled as he released another 3-point attempt. He made all three of them, for 47-30, which was ultimately the margin of victory.
Besides the defensive intensity and Josh Lamison's domination of the boards — especially the offensive boards — Johnson liked it that the scoring was balanced. Lamison finished with 19 points, Furman with 15, and Jackson and Hostetter with 12 each.
Answering a question from sportswriters afterward, the coach said his charges were confident they could repeat even in the absence of Charles Manning Jr., who led the Bees to last year's state title (the school's ninth) before transferring in the fall to Long Island Lutheran, the Island's top team.
Bridgehampton is to play the Westchester Class D champ, Clark Academy, in the East regional final on Friday at Pace University's Westchester campus in Pleasantville, N.Y., at 4:45 p.m.
The state Final Four tournament is to be contested over the March 11 to 12 weekend at the Glens Falls Civic Center.