January 7, 1999
The Southampton High School boys basketball team that spanned 1967 and ’70, on which Ron Baxter and Clarence (Foots) Walker played, has been hailed as the best of the 20th century on Long Island by State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. Its coach, Joe Romanosky Sr., was presented with a proclamation making that claim by Thiele before the Hoop-It-Up tournament championship game on Dec. 30. The jerseys of Walker, who played 10 years in the National Basketball Association, and Baxter, the first Mariner to score 1,000 points, were retired that night.
January 14, 1999
Quiet-spoken off the basketball court and a formidable force on it, Scott Smith is in his second year of professional play in Spain, and is among the top 10 scorers and rebounders in the Galicia league.
A fellow Bonacker, Howard Wood, hooked Smith, a 23-year-old New Hampshire College graduate, up with Inelga BBC in Spain’s northwestern province, “two hours from Portugal, 10 from Madrid, and an hour and 40 minutes from Howard,” who is an assistant coach with Ourense.
Soon, the Springs native, who was interviewed recently at the home of his parents, Larry and Helen, hopes to get an agent.
Should you want to follow Smith’s progress, log on to www.feb.es-competitiones-nacionales. And, should you do that, you should know that “puntos” are points, “rebotes” are rebounds, “tiro libres” are free throws, “tapones” are blocks, “recuperaciones” are steals, “perdidos” are turnovers, and “faltas” are fouls.
Before the Christmas break, Smith, the second leading scorer on the team, behind its post player, was averaging 16 points and six rebounds per game, tying him for the team lead. As for the level of competition, it was, he said, “about the same as in college, maybe a little better.”
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Putting on an eye-popping show, a Greenport freshman guard, Gerald Crenshaw, single-handedly took charge of Monday’s Class D toe-to-toe battle in the Bridgehampton Beehive in the fourth quarter, during which he poured in 22 points. His 48-point performance had to be one of the most memorable in the storied Bridgehampton gym, home of eight New York State Class D championship teams.
January 21, 1999
Amanda Brown set an East Hampton High School single-game girls basketball scoring record Saturday at Rocky Point as she dropped 35 points during the course of a 59-57 overtime win, the Bonackers’ first victory in league play this season.
A senior guard-forward, Brown thus vaulted over such former record holders as Sonya Russell (32), Mylan Le (30), Amanda Myrick Hayes (28), and Margaret Dunn (27) in the Bonac girls’ all-time record book. Russell’s mark, which Brown broke Saturday, was set in a game against Southampton at the beginning of the 1985-86 season.
Many of Brown’s points came at the foul line, where she went 14-for-15. In addition, she made 10 field goals, including one 3-pointer. As a team, East Hampton shot 23-for-32 from the line, a 72-percent average that, if maintained, ought to guarantee more victories down the road.