Bridgehampton High School’s boys basketball team went into Friday’s state Class D semifinal with perhaps more confidence than it should have, for Loudonville Christian proved to be a formidable foe, overcoming seemingly comfortable Bee leads on several occasions before yielding in the end, 63-53.
It was probably a good learning experience for Carl Johnson’s young charges, who will have their hands full in Saturday night’s final with Panama, a school southwest of Buffalo that starts five seniors, four of whom — the quarterback, the tight end, and two wide receivers — played on its state-championship football team.
As was the case in the recent regional final versus overmatched Eldred, Bridgehampton jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the opening quarter, but the Eagles, following a timeout, adjusted and came back to make a game of it, forcing turnovers and finishing the first quarter on an 8-2 run. With three minutes gone in the second, the Albany-area team was for a brief moment on top, at 19-17, but that was to be its last lead of the morning.
Nevertheless, the Eagles would not go away. The Bees took a 28-25 lead into the halftime break, at which point things remained tense.
Eddie Dawson, Bridgehampton’s sixth man, who came in off the bench for Xavier Johnson early in the third so that Johnson, who had fallen after having been fouled on a fast break, could be looked at by the trainer, kept his teammates heading in the right direction, sinking two technical free throws and canning a 3-pointer after Jai Feaster, the Bees’ point guard, had been called for his fourth foul with five and a half minutes left in the frame.
Dawson’s 3 put Bridgehampton up 39-30, and subsequent baskets by Jaylen Harding and Alex Davis (two) increased the margin to 13, at 45-32, but still Loudonville Christian would not yield, finishing the quarter on a 9-0 run as Feaster looked on from the bench.
The Bees were clinging to a 45-41 lead as the fourth began. Davis got it going with a steal, after which Johnson put back Feaster’s fast-break miss. A swished 3 by Feaster kept the Bees in the van, at 50-43, with 6:20 remaining.
Still, with three minutes to go, it was a 3-point game, at 52-49. A made free throw by Johnson, a basket by Feaster, and one by Davis, following another steal by him, treated the Bees to some breathing room, at 57-49, but it still wasn’t over: Had a 3-point attempt by Shayne Paddock gone in instead of rolling around and out, it would have been a 2-point game with 50 seconds left.
It was at that point that Davis took over, drawing a foul and making both free throws, stealing the ball yet again and laying it in, and, after drawing yet another foul, making one of two from the line for the 63-53 final.
The Bees’ transition game, keyed by the rebounding of Johnson and Jaylen and Jordan Harding, won it for them, as has been the case all season.
Bridgehampton did not shoot well from the foul line, however, making, according to one count, only nine of 25 attempts.
His players “thought it would be easy,” Coach Johnson said afterward, adding that “at this level, you’ve got to respect everybody — everybody is a section and regional champion; Loudonville Christian was a section and regional champion just like us.”
Complimented by a reporter on the team’s transition game, Davis said, “That’s how we play basketball . . . but we’ve got to make our free throws!”
“We’re here to win,” he said, when asked about the championship game matchup with Panama.
Feaster said he was a second grader when Bridgehampton, then led by Charles Manning Jr., last won a state championship, 10 years ago. The school has nine state titles to its credit. Only Mount Vernon, with 11, has more.
