Of chief note in East Hampton High School athletic news this week was Newsday’s announcement in its Sunday edition that Emma McGrory, a senior midfielder on Bonac’s playoff field hockey squad, had been named to its 12-player all-Long Island team.
Newsday said that McGrory, who will play the sport at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass., “was among the best on Long Island at her position, with 26 points (14 goals and 12 assists). Her play helped East Hampton to a 10-4 record.”
She also is reportedly in line for all-state honors, and is one of nine New York State players to be named to the National Field Hockey Coaches Association’s high school all-region team.
Right up there with McGrory’s citation — a rarity when it comes to East Hampton athletes — was the fact that Bridgehampton High’s boys basketball team, the Killer Bees, on Friday defeated Riverhead 63-61. It was a David-and-Goliath story — meriting a headline in Saturday’s Newsday — inasmuch as the Bees are a Class D school with an enrollment of 56 students in grades nine through 12, while Riverhead is an AAA school with a ninth through 12th enrollment in the 1,500 range.
“Wow,” Carl Johnson, the Bees’ coach said, when asked for his reaction to the big nonleague win. His team, he agreed, had exceeded his expectations, out-shooting and out-rebounding the athletic Blue Waves. And it just wasn’t his star sophomore guards, Jai Feaster (29 points, including six 3s) and Alex Davis (27 points with 11 made free throws), but also Evan Buccigross and Tyler Fitzgerald, among others, who contributed. Riverhead led 31-29 at the half, but the Bees outscored the County Seaters 16-10 in the third.
“I’ve been preaching to the kids that the first two minutes of the second half pretty much determine the outcome of the game,” said Johnson, “and, obviously, they’ve been listening.”
It would be a quick turnaround for the Bees, he added, inasmuch as Smithtown Christian, the team Bridgehampton defeated in overtime to win last year’s county Class D championship, was to be the 3-2 Bees’ league home-opener opponent Monday evening.
Things didn’t go so well this past week for East Hampton’s boys basketball team, which had played impressively in winning the Kendall Madison Tip-Off tournament over the Dec. 8 and 9 weekend. The Bonackers lost 69-46 at Westhampton Beach and were trounced 63-27 at home by Hauppauge, a game in which the visitors came away with numerous offensive rebounds and benefited from many East Hampton turnovers.
Thomas Nelson, who assists Bill McKee in coaching East Hampton, said during a Biddy basketball practice at the John M. Marshall Elementary School Saturday morning that “Hauppauge shot really well and we struggled. We had good looks, but they didn’t go in.” East Hampton had tried several defenses, he said, but none of them were able to slow the visitors down. “We weren’t getting to the right spot on defense — that’s something we’ll be working on, and, hopefully, we’ll regain our shooting touch.”
Nelson added that, “The important thing is the kids kept their heads up, which is a good sign.”
In other East Hampton High sports this past week, the boys swimming team “showed a lot of grit,” its coach, Craig Brierley, said in an emailed report concerning its 83-75 loss at Ward Melville.
“A small team, like us, Ward Melville finished first in all but one event, the 100 backstroke, which Ben Kriegsman won by .13. It was a great effort by our boys; they competed in every race.”
The team was to have played host to Northport at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter on Monday.
In crossover winter track meets at Suffolk Community College-Brentwood this past weekend, Ryleigh O’Donnell, of the girls team, won the 600-meter race in a personal-best time of 1 minute and 41.27 seconds; Melina Sarlo placed second in the shot-put with a season-best heave of 28 feet 9 inches, and Greylynn Guyer was third in the 1,500 with a personal-best time of 5:08.74.
Yani Cuesta, the girls’ coach, has, with her assistant, Nick DeLuca, entered competitors in all of the track and field events except for the high jump. “It was another great meet,” Cuesta said in an emailed report. “The girls continue to improve, and we have a better idea now as to where to put them in order to maximize their success.”
As for the boys, Kevin Barry, their coach, said that in Friday’s crossover meet Edmar Gonzalez-Nateras placed third in the 1,000-meter race in 2:53.22, Brayan Rivera placed second in the 1,600, and Austin Allen was third in the 600. On Sunday, Barry added, Rivera, Gonzalez-Nateras, Benson Edman, and Max Bellenoue finished third in the 4-by-800 relay.