February 4, 1999
“We’re no longer at the bottom of the barrel,” an elated Latisha Ellis, who coaches the Bridgehampton High School girls basketball team, the Honey Bees, said yesterday in reporting Tuesday’s exciting 46-44 win at home over Mercy, a team that had come very close last week to upsetting the League VIII co-leader, Eastport.
“We were down by one with six seconds left and Johnelle [Crews] hit a 3. Nothing but net.”
Crews finished with 15 points, Shawanna Hopson, the talented senior point guard, with 19. Their teammates Shalise Poole, Latanya Smith, who had been sidelined for the three previous games, and Sabrina Norris, who is expected to play the point next season, each chipped in with four.
Tuesday’s win was a big step forward for the team, which only won one game, a nonleaguer, last year.
February 11, 1999
The East Hampton High School boys basketball team clinched the League VI crown and in all likelihood an undefeated league season and the top seed in the coming county Class B tournament by defeating Southampton 67-59 in a fierce battle played out Tuesday before a standing-room-only crowd of 1,100 in the East Hampton gym.
. . . Playing by far their most inspired game of the season thus far, the Bonackers overcame suffocating man-for-man pressure throughout the contest and clicked so frequently from the floor and the foul line that their fans were swept along from one whooping crescendo to another as the mano-a-mano battle played out.
. . . Bodies were diving all over the floor in the frantic final minute. Following two misses from long range by Courtney Pritchard and Terry Smith, Keith Gilliam was stripped of the ball on the inbounds play by Pritchard, who, with 41 seconds left, drove for the hoop. Adam Gledhill, who had inbounded the ball, interposed himself between Pritchard and the basket, and though Pritchard’s layup went in, he was called for a charge — a call that infuriated Southampton’s bench and its fans.
. . . Gilliam, with 22 seconds on the clock, drew a foul and coolly canned two free throws for 61-59. A technical foul assessed Southampton’s coach, Herm Lamison, who was out of timeouts, and another foul that Gilliam drew pretty much sealed the Mariners’ fate. In the final 10 seconds, Gilliam converted two free throws, and Willie McFarland, who was to finish with a game-high 21 points and 10 rebounds, went four-for-four from the foul line to cap the 67-59 victory.
. . . “It was a good game,” Ed Petrie, East Hampton’s coach, said with a smile when asked, following the joyous aftermath, for a comment. “I thought the kids played well considering that a league championship was at stake,” he added.
Bill McKee, Petrie’s assistant, said, “Keith Gilliam played great in coming off the bench for Jesse [Shapiro]. Steve Finazzo played great too. Their contributions were invaluable. Against Southampton you can’t do it with just five guys.”
“There’s another good possibility we’ll meet in the playoffs,” McKee added. “And it will be anybody’s game again.”