Whalers Sink, Bees Soar
In the end, Dan White, who coaches Pierson High School's boys basketball team, thought it was Stony Brook's senior guards who made the difference in the final minutes of the county Class C championship game Monday, a hotly contested game that Stony Brook won by a score of 44-39.
"I thought we were there — we were up by 6 early in the fourth," White said with a sigh, "but their press took some of our momentum away . . . and [as for the guards] you've got to make the plays late, not look for others to make them."
Robbie Evjen, the Whalers' 6-foot-3-inch senior center, gave it his all, finishing with a game-high 20 points and, according to his coach, "15 to 20 rebounds," but he couldn't quite get it done.
The anchor of the Whalers' offense and defense had to come out after picking up his second foul late in the second quarter, and the Bears immediately took advantage by going on a 9-3 run. By the time Evjen re-entered the fray, about six minutes later, the Brooksters were leading 16-13. Moments later, after Evjen had missed a "gimme" underneath, they quickly tacked on 6 more points as the result of back-to-back 3-pointers by their senior sparkplug, Rob Colarusso, extending the margin to 22-13.
At the half, Pierson trailed 26-21, but, with Evjen leading the way — and not picking up any more fouls — came back in the third, a period during which Colarusso, who was to lead the winners with 17 points, went cold, failing to convert any of his seven attempts.
Assisted by Ben Kushner (Pierson's second-leading scorer, who was shut down by Stony Brook's defense that day), Evjen made a 3-point play as the third began, and soon after evened things at 26-26 with a nice move to the basket.
"He's a helluva player," White was to say later. "I knew he had the matchup advantage -- he has a great first step. . . . I just realized," he said, with another sigh, "that I won't have him anymore."
After Luke O'Connor, a left-handed junior guard who came off the bench, had made a 3, Evjen fed Stephen Musnicki for 29-28, and after the Bears' other senior guard, Luke Meyer, had missed at the other end, Evjen drew a foul from Chester Kayonga, and made good on both free throws, the second of which treated the Whalers to a 30-29 lead. He was to shoot 8-for-9 from the foul line that day.
The quarter ended with a basket by Evjen — after having grabbed the rebound of his own miss -- and a long 2 by Musnicki, again with Evjen assisting. Evjen kicked the lead up to 6 with two minutes gone in the fourth, but after that Stony Brook, with its guards in the van, launched the run that would win it the county Class C title.
When Evjen committed his fourth foul in contesting a rebound with a minute and a half left, Stony Brook's fans, whose team led then 40-38 as the result of a falling-down 3 by the aforementioned O'Connor, stood and cheered.
A rare basket by Stony Brook's biggest man, Jyles Etienne, to whom Meyer had alertly passed the ball from the baseline before it sailed out of bounds, increased the Bears' lead to 4, prompting White to call a timeout.
When play resumed, Andrew James, who had theretofore hit twice from long range, missed a 3-point attempt from the left corner, after which Stony Brook's guards dribbled about, taking time off the clock. Two free throws by Colarusso with 11 seconds to go put the game and the championship out of the Whalers' reach.
Laugher for the Bees
Before the Pierson-Stony Brook struggle, Bridgehampton's Killer Bees, who not only have their sights set on a state Class D championship (which would be that storied school's first since 1998), but also on an overall county title, routed Smithtown Christian for the third time this season, except that rather than 30, the margin of victory was 43 this time around.
Originally, Carl Johnson and his assistants, Joe Zucker and Kevin McConville, had expected that their high-flying charges, who went undefeated in league play, would automatically be crowned the county D champs. But the Section XI powers-that-be thought otherwise, even though Smithtown Christian had finished at 6-8.
With Charles Manning Jr. playing above the rim, and with Tylik Furman orchestrating and Josh Lamison anchoring the offense, the Bees quickly turned the game into a laugher.
Manning finished with a game-high 28 points; Furman had 15; Elijah Jackson, 13, Lamison, 12, Matthew Hostetter, 5, Ameer Brunson, 2, and Justin LaPointe and Max Cheng, 1 each. The final score was 77-34.
Johnson said later that neither Southampton (seeded second among the B schools) nor Bridgehampton had received the respect it merited at the county seeding meeting. Bridgehampton is to play Stony Brook in the county C-D game at William Floyd on Saturday at noon. The Southampton-Center Moriches winner is to play top-seeded Babylon for the Class B title there at 3.
On Feb. 24, the B-C-D game is to be played at Walt Whitman High School at 5 p.m. The county Class A championship game is to be played there that night at 8.
The Class A semifinals are to be played Friday at the sites of the higher seeds (the times had yet to be determined as of press time). One of those semis will match the East Hampton-Islip winner against the Harborfields-Amityville winner.