The East Hampton High School boys basketball team lost its league opener with Kings Park here last Thursday 72-50, but an even worse loss was suffered midway through the second quarter, when it became clear that Luke Reese, Dan White’s stellar junior guard, would have to come out because of a knee injury.
Reese, who had scored 34 points in the recent Mattituck tournament’s championship game, sustained the injury as he was felled in driving to the hoop with the score tied at 21-21. At the free-throw line, he made his first attempt — his eighth point that night — but that was to be it scoring-wise for him. He spent the rest of the game on the sidelines with an ice pack that Nick Jarboe, the trainer, had put on.
On Monday, Dan White, the team’s coach, said his star, “one of the best players I’ve ever had,” would probably be out for the rest of the season with a cartilage tear.
The game began in whirlwind fashion, with Reese and his teammates getting the best of it early on. The Bonackers were up 19-10 after the first quarter, but the visitors, who proved to be equally tenacious and versatile, led by 9 points at the half. Without Reese, East Hampton pared that lead to 2 on a fast-break bucket by Liam Fowkes with 1:10 remaining in the third, but Kings Park, leading 42-40 at the time, was to outscore East Hampton 30-10 thereafter, benefiting from frequent turnovers and fouls.
“No one’s going to replace Luke,” White said. “What happened to him was very unfortunate, especially considering that he saw limited action last season because of Covid, and now this. I feel bad for him.”
Nick Cordone and Mike Locascio would see more minutes in Reese’s absence, “and we’ll have to play differently,” said White, “which will be a challenge.”
East Hampton was to have played host to Half Hollow Hills West on Monday and is to play at Sayville tonight.
The Wrestling Report
Turning to wrestling, Ethan Mitchell’s team, after having been pretty much flattened by Westhampton Beach here in its league opener Friday night, bounced back to defeat Hampton Bays 35-33 in the Doc Fallot Memorial Duals tournament the next day.
East Hampton’s winners were Caleb Peralta, by a first-period pin, at 132 pounds; Peralta’s fellow captain, Santi Maya, by a first-period pin, at 138; Luke Castillo, by forfeit, at 145; Cassius Hokanson, by forfeit, at 152; Adam Beckwith, by a technical fall, at 160, and Jose Calderon, by forfeit, at 215.
Westhampton Beach, which has a strong program, outscored East Hampton 48-15 here on Friday, pinning five.
Peralta, wrestling at 126, lost 3-2 to Luke Citerelli, who, with the score tied at 2-2, was credited with a reversal in the final minute of the third period. Peralta tried for a single-leg takedown thereafter, but Citerelli held him off and circled out of range as the final seven seconds ticked away.
At 145, Maya outlasted his opponent, Connor Gormley, by a like score. A single-leg takedown earned Maya 2 points early on, and an escape by Gormley made it 2-1 before the first period ended. Maya tacked on another point in the second period, and held on for the win in the third.
In the last match of the night, Calderon, wrestling at 189, pinned his man, Ryan Fives, with 49.4 seconds to go in the first period.