Smithtown Christian was founded as an elementary school with 59 students in 1978, and its first senior class graduated in 1991, so says the Wikipedia entry.
In all that time, which is to say in the past three decades, Smith Chris, as it is colloquially known, had never until Friday night won a county boys basketball championship, nor had it really ever, if memory serves, been in serious contention given such fellow Class D powerhouses as Bridgehampton and Greenport.
But on Friday night, the Knights, who could have fairly been said to be on a crusade, did it, unhorsing Shelter Island 57-37 in East Hampton High School’s gym.
During the regular season, the League VIII teams, each of which finished at 8-4, traded wins, with Smithtown Christian winning 64-53 at home on Jan. 15, and with the Hareleggers winning 66-58 on The Rock on Feb. 3.
Shelter Island suited up an all-senior lineup for the county Class D championship game — Lucas Quigley Dunning, Walter Richards, Keith Taplin, Luke Lowell-Liszanckie, and Daniel Martin. Smithtown Christian started three juniors — Josh Mangum, Jon Evers, and DenMark Simon — along with two seniors — Josh Rivers and Gabe Gibson, about whom more later.
The Knights had the edge from the beginning, being the better-shooting and rebounding team, on that night at least. They led by 7 points going into the second quarter, and by halftime, thanks in part to a 7-0 spurt in the final minutes, by 12.
Richards, a strong inside player, did his best to keep Shelter Island credible in the third, though, for him, it did not begin well — he lost the ball twice in the early going before parlaying a good move into a basket at the midway point and converting a Shelter Island steal into another one for 28-18.
Richards drew a foul when play resumed following a Smithtown Christian timeout, and made both free throws, which narrowed the lead to 8. He brought his team to within 8 again moments later, with two minutes to go, but the Knights at that point, led by the aforementioned Gibson, a senior guard who was to repeatedly knife his way through defenders on the way to the hoop in the endgame, seemed to stiffen their resolve.
Jon Evers’s 3-pointer extended the visitors’ lead to 33-22, and, after Rivers, the tallest player on the court, had committed his fourth foul, Gibson laid one up over Taplin’s outstretched arm for 35-22. A subsequent taunting call treated Shelter Island to two foul shots — both missed by Quigley Dunning — and the ball to inbound, a play that Taplin capped with a 3-pointer.
Richards made his ninth point of the period on a foul shot with 20 seconds left, his performance in that frame having held the Knights, who led 37-26 entering the fourth, more or less at bay in the third.
The Knights, their guards, Gibson and Mangum chiefly, sluffing off defenders on their way to the basket, were on a mission and were not to be denied. Gibson drove the baseline for a 2 to get the fourth period under way, and moments later, twisting through two defenders, took it to the hoop again for 41-27.
Martin, following a foul shot by Mangum, came up with a steal, but a turnover by Lowell-Liszanckie squandered the opportunity. And then Gibson struck again, for 43-28.
And so it went, with the Knights fully up to the challenge, all the more so when Richards fouled out with 4:29 still left to play.
Richards’s exit was greeted with cheers from Smithtown Christian’s large entourage, leaving as it did Gibson, who was to score a game-high 27 points, and his teammates to continue on their merry way.
Gibson, himself, to loud applause, fouled out with 2:48 to go, by which time the Knights, leading 51-31, had long been in the saddle.