Magnificent Seven For Bees
The Bridgehampton High School boys basketball team, known in years past as the Bridgies and more recently as the Killer Bees, brought home yet another New York State Class D plaque from Glens Falls this weekend, the seventh such in the tiny school's history, gilding further its remarkable record as the state tournament's winningest school.
Thus '97 will be added to the sign at the entrance to the village, replacing the ellipsis that as of last week followed a line listing 1978, '79, '80, '84, '86, and '96 as the years in which Bridgehampton, whose male enrollment at the moment is 25 in its high school grades, has won it all.
Carl Johnson's intrepid crew, which had lost only two times this season - to Forest Hills at Christmastime, a game the Bees gave away in the final minutes, and to William Floyd on March 8 by virtue of a shocking last-second three-pointer that deprived them of an unprecedented all-classification county title - "took care of business" on Friday and Saturday at the Glens Falls Civic Center.
The De Facto Final
On Friday afternoon, in what was the de facto final, the Maurice Manning-led Bees shrugged off a sluggish first half, and, following a tongue-lashing they received at halftime from Johnson, the only coach in the state to have played for and coached state champions, ripped through Notre Dame Of Batavia, the state's second-ranked D school, in the second half on their way to a joyous 63-34 rout.
And on Saturday night, before another large crowd that again included about 400 feisty local fans who had followed their young heroes to the city that lies an hour north of Albany, the Bees put away Hammond, a surprise 49-41 semifinal winner over Hamilton, 79-55.
There was plenty of tension going into the Bees-Notre Dame semifinal inasmuch as the upstate team had height, a penetrating point guard, was said to be accurate from the outside, and was undefeated. Granted, the Fighting Irish probably hadn't played schools the caliber of Forest Hills, Westbury, William Floyd, Amityville, or Edwin Gould Academy, but they were 25-0.
Tension Showed
The tension, moreover, was not confined to the faithful. The Bees showed abundant evidence of it as they shot a miserable 20 percent from the floor in the first half, including a half-dozen errant three-point attempts over Notre Dame's packed-in 2-3 zone.
Going into the locker room down 20-17, the team got a lecture from Johnson, who vowed that the next player to throw up a 3 would be yanked.
It was clear once the third quarter began that the Bees had listened to what their coach had said as Kareem Coffey, the staunch sophomore who plays down low, stole the ball and fed Manning for a 10-foot jumper. When, a moment later, Manning was stripped of the ball, the Bees' star - who was to be named the Class D tournament's most valuable player for the second year in a row - returned the favor and laid it in for a 21-20 Bee lead.
Championship Form
A basket by Mike Sisson, one of Notre Dame's guards, put the lead back in the hands of the Fighting Irish, but that was the last field goal Notre Dame was to score for a long while as the Bees, with Antwon Foster's slashing drives ripping through the seams of the zone and with the Bees' man-to-man defense shifting gears, the state champions began to look like state champions.
The 17-0 tear began with a steal by Foster and a basket by him with an assist from Manning. Following a miss by Vin Fanara, Notre Dame's 6-foot, 3-inch senior guard at the other end, Foster slashed into the lane and banked in a layup to put Bridgehampton ahead 25-22. After Fred Welch had missed a fastbreak layup following a block by him and a Manning steal, Foster, dribbling right to left into the paint, found his favorite receiver, Cof-fey, down low for 27-22. A tip-in by Ronnie White and, following a Notre Dame timeout, a thundering three-pointer by Manning took the fight out of the Fighting Irish, who were suddenly down by 10.
More In Store
But the Bees had more of the same in store. Stealing the ball from Thomas, Manning fed Matt White for 34-22, Foster, drawing a foul from Notre Dame's man in the middle, the 6-4 Mike Redick, made both free throws for 36-22, and, with the Bees' fans now shouting, "Defense! Defense!," Foster stole the ball and went coast-to-coast, capping the stunning run.
"They're stealing the ball every time downcourt," enthused an ardent Bee fan, one of about a dozen sportswriters, broadcasters, and photographers who made the trip up - arguably the largest entourage following one team at the tournament.
Two foul shots by Welch put the Bees up by 16 in the first minute of the fourth quarter, after which a couple of traps by Notre Dame served to pare five points from the bulge. But Manning then made it very clear that Notre Dame would come no closer than 11 as he promptly drained two more 3s and jammed Foster's alley-oop pass, savoring the crowd's jubilant cheers a moment, hanging from the rim.
Beyond Redemption
Those heroics extended the Bees' lead to 50-31 and set the scene for even more dazzling Killer Bee basketball. By the time the 10-0 run that Manning had begun was over, Bridgehampton led 60-31 and had left the once-game Notre Dame straggling in the dust, as it were, far beyond redemption.
With two minutes left, Johnson pulled his starters, who were loudly applauded, and brought in the subs - Courtney Turner, who was to score the final basket, Kwame Opoku, B.J. Walker, Mike Dombkowski, and Paul Jeffers.
"Offensively, we were stagnant," Johnson's assistant, Michael Jackson, said later, when asked to describe how the Bees had come to hit their stride. "We told the kids to forget the 3, and be patient. Antwon broke their defense down, and we began to hit the open shots. Maurice, with his 27 points, 13 rebounds [the official scorer tallied 17], and six steals, had an all-state performance. He's a man among boys - even up here."
Big Game For Foster
Foster, who was to be named along with Manning to the state tournament's all-star team the next night, finished with 12 points, five assists, five rebounds, and four steals. Coffey chipped in with 11 points, but even more important, limited Notre Dame's high-scorer, Redick, who was four inches taller, to a measly seven. Fanara was the sole Notre Dame scorer in double figures, with 15.
Bridgehampton's reserves got to play on Saturday night, too, but this time for most of the fourth quarter, by which time the Bees led by 33.
Hammond, making its debut in the state tourney, was not given much of a chance against the Bees, and, indeed, the final was a mismatch, so much so that the referees, in an apparent attempt to balance the scales, made some questionable calls - especially as regards Manning, whose early alley-oop attempt [Foster had lobbed him the inbounds pass from under Hammond's hoop] was labeled by the refs as an offensive charge.
Manning Sits
Early in the second quarter, the Bees' 6-2 junior forward, who may well be named the best small schools player in the state, received two more demerits, including a technical foul, for having reportedly said, "All ball" after making what appeared to be a clean block of a layup attempt by 6-0 John Arquitt.
So, with 6:23 left in the period and the score 22-11, Manning, who had only seen 40 seconds of action in the stanza, sat with three fouls.
It mattered little, for the Bees, who, having learned their lesson the day before, continued to drive to the hole and to play Killer Bee defense, or bee-fense as Joe Zucker's sign has it.
In Manning's absence, Foster's drives to the hoop drew fouls, and he, Charles Furman, and Tat Picott, among others, extended the Bees' margin to 19 by the end of the half. Manning returned to action when the third quarter began, but had to come out again at the midway point on being assessed his fourth foul.
Manning Flurry
Foster, meanwhile, upped his total to 20 by the period's end, draining two 3s - one of which he followed with a free throw for a four-point play - and two other free throws.
Lest there be any doubt that he should be the tournament m.v.p., Manning, who only played 14-and-a-half minutes of the final, put on a show in the opening minute-and-a-half of the fourth, scoring six of the Bees' first eight points and assisting Matt White with the other two after making a steal.
When the Bee starters left the floor, as their fans cheered and chanted in the direction of Hammond's hordes the familiar victory refrain, "NanananaNa nananaNa nanaNa Na . . . hey, He-ey, good-bye," Bridgehampton led 74-41, a giant gap that Hammond, whose starters remained in the game, narrowed to 24 in garbage time.
"We executed our plays and played Killer Bee defense," a smiling Manning said to a television crew amid the post-game courtside celebrating.
Consistently Bad
"Our experience made the difference," said an elated Foster, who had saved his best basketball of the season for the tournament. "Yes, the refs called a tight game, but they made bad calls both ways, so they were consistent."
Foster, whose 20 points led Bridgehampton, had played for the Bees in his freshman year, and then moved to East Hampton where he played in his sophomore and junior years. "I didn't know what it was like to win," he said, basking in the afterglow.
Johnson had had some doubts about Foster's defensive ability at the beginning of the season, but that was a long time ago. He had granted Foster's request to guard Hammond's best player, Jeremy Nelson, that night - a 6-3 senior who'd scored a game-high 21 points in the semifinal with Hamilton. The goal was to keep him under 20. Foster did much better than that, limiting Nelson, who frequently brought the ball up before going down low, to eight.
"Killer Bees Never Die"
"Killer Bees never die," Manning was heard saying to the television announcer. "We keep coming back - again and again."
"I'm glad to see they're keeping up the tradition," said a Bridgehampton alumnus, Amos Wyche, a state trooper who played with Johnson on the 1978 and '79 state-championship teams and now lives in Saratoga Springs. "They show poise . . . they act like professionals on and off the court."
"People didn't think we'd be here, but we felt it was OUR year too," said Manning, who next year will have a chance - a pretty good one, observers say - to match the three-championship record shared by Johnson and Wayne Hopson.
Rather than "Repeat," which he had had a Southampton barber scroll into the hair on the back of his head, he would have to have "Threepeat" written next year, suggested a bystander.
"Got Together As One"
"You're Suffolk's player-of-the-year," a Newsday sportswriter told Manning as he headed off for another interview.
"We stuck together like a family - we really got together as one for the Edwin Gould game," the Bees' star continued, in answer to a question. "Like Nick [Thomas, last year's captain, now a freshman at New York University], I wanted to play till I couldn't play anymore."
"I'm really happy," said Johnson. "Last year when we won I was relieved. This year, I'm really enjoying it. I know we were the heavy favorites, but I didn't want to give them a chance to think they could win. I did not want them to make history." [No Section 10 team has ever won the state Class D championship.] I've told Mo I want him to come back with me next year. He played well tonight, but Antwon had an outstanding game."
Picott Too
Manning, in his 14-some minutes, still managed to score 17 points, and haul down seven rebounds - five of them on the offensive glass, to which he added two assists, two steals, and two blocks. Foster, in addition to his 20 points, had three assists, one steal, and one block.
Tat Picott came off the bench to score 11 points; Coffey had eight and six boards; Furman had seven; Matt White had six, and Welch had five.
"We lost three key seniors [from last year's state champions] . . . I was worried at the beginning of the season," Johnson said, in reviewing the past few months. "We had a young team, but from Forest Hills on, we stepped up. Antwon and Fred had the tools to be leaders, and Mo [Manning] led by example. It was a combination of all three. Now, the younger kids have got a taste of it."
He would go on a vacation, the happy and weary coach said when asked about his immediate plans. "To the Virgin Islands. To somewhere where they've never heard of the Killer Bees."