Dan White, the coach of East Hampton High’s boys basketball team, was in high spirits Sunday morning in reporting the team’s nonleague win the day before at East Islip.
Why? Because for the first time, he said, the Bonackers were playing well in the absence of Luke Reese, their stellar junior guard, who has been knocked out of the season with a knee injury.
White’s charges defeated East Islip, a fellow Class A school, 51-44. “We got off to a great start, at 10-2, and never lost the lead,” White said. “Jack Dickinson had 21 points, Liam [Fowkes] 12, and Finn [Byrnes], who was getting open underneath, 8.” And the team’s point guard, Hector Maldonado, “had a great game . . . he can play.”
Without Reese, he had to change things up offensively and defensively, White said. “It was virtually like starting from scratch. I hope we’ve turned the corner.”
East Hampton’s first game without its star was played here on Dec. 13 against Half Hollow Hills West, a formidable league opponent led by a versatile 6-foot-5 guard, Frank Wilson, who was named to Newsday’s top 100. In the end it was Wilson who made the difference, though the Bonackers actually held the lead in each of the first three quarters
— 15-8 at the end of the first, 33-22 at halftime, and 40-38 at the end of the third.
“They got after us at the end and we crumbled under their ball pressure,” said White. “We weren’t used to not having Luke.”
Still, East Hampton stayed in the game until the waning minutes. A basket from inside the arc by Nick Cordone made it a 3-point game, at 57-54, with 1 minute and 45 seconds to play, but things unraveled thereafter. Three made free throws that followed Bonac fouls and a coast-to-coast layup by Wilson after he’d stolen the ball assured the visitors of a 62-54 win.
When this writer said East Hampton had, nevertheless, “played commendably,” White replied with a laugh, “No, no, Jack, no moral victories.”
After Hills West it was Sayville on Dec. 15. East Hampton lost there 48-33, a game that White would rather forget. “I thought we’d win, but we were still looking for Luke. We got a little passive, they trapped, and it cost us. That one’s on me — I didn’t do a good enough job in getting the kids ready. But I’m really encouraged by the way we played yesterday.”
Pierson (Sag Harbor) High School’s team, coached by Will Fujita in League VI, a league with Class B, C, and D schools, was at 4-0 going into this week. The Whalers as of Monday had wins over Greenport, Port Jefferson, Smithtown Christian, and Shelter Island — the first two being fellow Class C teams, and the last two D schools.
Bridgehampton’s Killer Bees, who lost 60-59 to Greenport last Thursday, were to have played at Pierson Tuesday. Wilson Bennett, a senior forward who also made Newsday’s top 100, and Cecil Munshin, a senior guard, have been Fujita’s top scorers.
The Whalers’ coach said he’d been able to schedule only two nonleague games — with Hampton Bays and Northport, the latter an AA school that Pierson is to play on Dec. 29. That will be the only action his charges will see over the Christmas break, Fujita said, adding that his team played “good defense and we’re moving the ball well on offense.”
Charles Escalante, who coaches the boys basketball team at the Ross School, said in an email Sunday that the Ravens last week lost 67-33 to Southold and 73-26 to Port Jeff. In both games, he said, “we turned the ball over far too many times.” Ross was 1-4 as of Monday. It is to resume play on Jan. 6. Pierson is to play there on Jan. 7.