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Whalers Were Sharp in Class C Semifinal

Wed, 02/16/2022 - 18:14

While Bonac basketball has not lived up to expectations

Cecil Munshin, with the ball above, and his Pierson teammates dominated the boards.
Craig Macnaughton

The season past, and, in fact, the season before it, because of Covid, did not go well for East Hampton High School’s boys basketball team, whose coach, Dan White, said the other day that he would make sure not to play his starters in next year’s home debut.

He was referring to “the home-opener curse,” the knee injury that his star shooting guard, Luke Reese, suffered in a loss here to Kings Park on Dec. 9, which effectively kept him out of the lineup thereafter — though he did play sparingly in some games at the season’s end. Reese’s absence forced White to redo things, “but then, because of Covid, we were put on pause for 10 days, just when we were figuring out how to play without Luke.”

Which is to say that the Bonackers who are juniors and sophomores now — namely Reese, Jack Dickinson, Finn Byrnes, Liam Fowkes, Cash Muse, and Ben Zazula — will get one more crack at it come next winter.

“If we’re strong and healthy, and Covid doesn’t screw us, we should finally reach our potential,” said the coach, who added that “it won’t just be open gym in the off-season — we’ll be playing in tournaments and working on individual skills . . . I want us to be ready.”

Meanwhile, up Route 114, the Pierson High School Whalers, the top-seeded Class C team, looked sharp in defeating fourth-seeded Southold 67-41 Saturday afternoon, as if they were looking forward to having another go at Southampton in the county B-C-D game, which is to be played at Longwood High School in Middle Island on March 1.

Pierson got off to a slow start, but a 10-2 run at the end of the second quarter, during which Dan Labrozzi and Brendan Burke hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Cecil Munshin and Charlie Culver, assisted by Munshin, netted layups, put the Whalers up 29-18 heading into the third period, during which the onslaught continued. A slam dunk by Wilson Bennett two and a half minutes into it, which extended the Whalers’ lead to 39-20, was as if to say “game over.”

By the end, Will Fujita, Pierson’s coach, had pretty much played everyone on his squad. The game ended with Logan Hartstein, Pierre DuPlessis, Charlie McClean, Dom Mancino, and Kevin King on the floor as Bennett, Munshin, Culver, Labrozzi, Leo Butler, and Brendan Burke looked on.

Bennett finished with 21 points, Labrozzi, who was deadly from long range, with 16, and Munshin with 14. Culver, Burke, Hartstein, Butler, King, and McClean also chipped in — Culver with 4 points, Burke and Hartstein with 3 each, and Butler, King, and McClean each with 2.

Fujita afterward had good things to say about everyone, not forgetting the contributions that Butler, Labrozzi, and Burke made to the team’s success.

Pierson last won a Class C title in 2012.


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