There were 26 seconds left to play Friday night when Miczar Garcia, a Bridgehampton High School senior who rarely gets a chance to play, launched a shot from beyond the arc that when the ball swished through the basket not only capped a 104-51 rout of Shelter Island — and thus the school’s first undefeated league season in a decade — but unleashed pandemonium in the Beehive as joyous teammates rushed to enfold him in hugs.
It was one of those moments, cathartic, touching, and gleeful, that should never fade.
Of course, it wasn’t such a gleeful night for the Islanders, who, from the get-go, were smothered by a swarming defense that caused countless turnovers that often were parlayed into fast-break layups. The Killer Bees had their way under the boards too, at both ends of the court. Putbacks followed misses in quick succession under the basket Shelter Island defended. Not to mention the 13 threes, Alex Davis being most notable in that regard, with five, accounting for half of his game-high 30 points.
It’s hard to remember the last time a Bridgehampton boys basketball team topped the century mark, though Killer Bee/Bridgie teams of the past certainly did so. Friday’s beating brought to mind a locker room talk Henry Uihlein said he once gave with his Shelter Island team trailing in the old Beehive by 70 at the half. “You’re only behind by 35 baskets,” he said by way of encouragement.
Carl Johnson, Bridgehampton’s Hall of Fame coach, who has won three state championships as a player and four as a coach, played everyone on his squad that night, beginning with Jaylin Harding, Davis, Garcia, Jai Feaster, and Xavier Johnson, and ending with Garcia, Amaree Charlton, Engher Suarez, Christian Pinckney, and Jaylin Harding on the court. Others who saw action Friday were Eddie Dawson, Tyler Fitzgerald, and Leo McDonald. Jackson Harding was sidelined with an ankle injury.
The visitors’ Harrison Weslek and Evan Weslek hit 3s in the early minutes, but soon the Bees, with Feaster, Adrian Molina, and Jaylin Harding replying in kind, took charge. It was 30-8 Bridgehampton at the close of the first quarter, 53-30 at the half. By which time Harding, one of three brothers on the squad — their father, J.P. Harding Jr., played on the 1996 state-championship Bridgehampton team — had 15 points, Johnson 12, Davis 10, and Feaster, who had many assists that night, 6.
When a reporter enthused during the postgame love fest about the team’s toughness, quickness, and well-balanced attack, Johnson said there were still some things to work on. The Bees won’t play next until March 2, the open county basketball tournament having been discontinued. A pity in a way, inasmuch as this year’s team, albeit from a school with a tiny enrollment, might well have been, as Johnson said, “a tough out.”
The Bees, he added, will be scrimmaging a lot throughout the rest of the month, two to three times a week, versus “Westhampton, Southampton, Bayport, East Hampton . . . I’ve got to keep the kids sharp.”
The March 2 game, for the county Class D championship, at St. Joseph’s College in Patchogue, will be played, he said, against either St. Pius V, a team the Bees have defeated three times this season, or, perhaps, against whichever team wins a St. Pius-Smithtown Christian semifinal matchup. The Bees are also 3-0 vs. Smith Chris. The state’s Class D regional final is to be played against the Section I/IX winner on March 15 at Center Moriches High School. The state Final Four tournament is to be contested at Binghamton’s Veterans Memorial Arena over the March 21-22 weekend.
Led by Charles Manning Jr., Bridgehampton last won a state Class D championship in March of 2015, breezing by New York Mills, the defending state champion at the time, 62-49 in the final. Should this year’s edition follow suit, it would be Bridgehampton’s 10th state championship.
