Phantoms Fall, Boys Dream On

The county Class A boys basketball semifinal here Tuesday promised to be a dogfight, and it was, with the third-seeded Phantoms of Bayport-Blue Point fiercely pressing the second-seeded East Hampton Bonackers throughout in a dogged effort to render nightmarish Bill McKee's team's dreams.

In the end, though, East Hampton, with the gym in an uproar from the opening tip, and with everyone in its lineup coming up big at one moment or another, prevailed 75-68 to set up a showdown Friday with top-seeded Harborfields for the county Class A championship at Suffolk Community College-Selden. Gametime is 5:30 p.m. following a B-C-D game at 3 between Bridgehampton and Southampton.

Regis O'Neil, usually content to rebound and score in close, scorched the nets from 3-point range in the first half on 5-for-5 shooting. By the break he had scored 21, and he finished with a career-high 27.

Brandon Kennedy-Gay, on the receiving end several times of hammer blows delivered by Bayport defenders as he twirled toward the hoop, shot 9-for-9 from the free-throw line, three coming when time had expired in the third quarter, which put his team up 55-51, and four in crunch time. He finished with 21 points.

East Hampton won despite the fact that Kennedy-Gay's fellow senior guard, Kyle McKee, because of early foul trouble had to sit for almost half the game, and Brandon Johnson, a strong presence underneath, fouled out with almost three minutes to go.

Playing with four fouls in the fourth, the scrappy McKee tipped in a Kennedy-Gay miss for 66-64 with 1:40 remaining, and in the final seconds bracketed a big defensive rebound with four swished free throws that extended the final margin from 3 points to 7.

"It was a helluva game," the elder McKee said afterward. "That first half was as good as I've ever seen us play. They came back with those three 3s in the opening seconds of the third, just as they did the last time we played them here, and it was a battle after that. We made the plays at the end, though. We were 11-for-14 from the foul line in the fourth quarter."