Friday was the East Hampton High School boys basketball team’s Senior Night, and before it, in addition to citing his five seniors — Luke Reese, Jack Dickinson, Finn Byrnes, Nick Cordone, and Jesse Cohen — Dan White, Bonac’s coach, paid tribute to Howard Wood, Joe McKee, Chris Coleman, Don Reese, and Nick Jarboe, whom he credited with having molded the team that was that night to win the Division IV championship.
The Bonackers did so by defeating Westhampton Beach 66-47 with relative ease. It was the team’s 11th straight win and its 13th league victory vis-a-vis one loss. Section XI’s website over the weekend showed East Hampton topping Division IV, trailed by Mount Sinai, Comsewogue, Bayport-Blue Point, Hampton Bays, Sayville, Shoreham-Wading River, Westhampton Beach, Rocky Point, Eastport-South Manor, and Miller Place.
The boys were to have finished the regular season at Comsewogue Tuesday. A win there would have assured White’s squad of the conference championship to boot.
Also last week, East Hampton defeated Eastport-South Manor 65-48 and Rocky Point 67-37. Ten Bonackers, including Liam Fowkes, Toby Foster, Reese, and Byrnes, got into the scoring column at the North Shore school.
East Hampton took a 38-21 lead into the second half of Friday’s game, which was also notable for its spirited atmosphere — the band played with verve and the cheerleaders were in full cry.
But it wasn’t entirely over. Westhampton opened the third period with a 10-2 spurt, but the Bonackers soon righted themselves. After the 6-foot-6 Jorden Bennett lost the handle, Reese took off for Westhampton’s basket, making good on his second attempt for 42-31. The visitors pulled to within 9 points again moments later, but Fowkes in quick succession capped two subsequent fast breaks and hit a 3-pointer to give East Hampton breathing room again at 49-35.
East Hampton continued in the van during the remainder of the game, with Dickinson often feeding Byrnes inside for easy layups. With three and a half minutes left, White gave Cordone, Carter Dickinson, Cash Muse, and Foster some playing time.
As Dickinson dribbled the ball idly, unmolested, the final seconds ticked off, the crowd roared, and the band played “Harvardiana.”
Reese finished with 23 points, hitting four 3-pointers in the first half, Fowkes wound up with 18, Byrnes with 17, and Jack Dickinson with 11.
Avery Merrihew led Westhampton with 22 points, but Bennett, often guarded man-for-man by Reese, had only 7.
The Bonackers outscored the visitors 24-9 in the second quarter, pretty much assuring them the victory.
“This is really a dream group of kids,” White said afterward. “They’ve been held back by Covid and injuries, but now they’re league champs with a chance to win the conference too.”
It was the first league championship for an East Hampton boys basketball team in seven years, White added.
The Bonac Girls
East Hampton’s girls team, which took a 3-10 record into the season finale Monday at Greenport, continues to rebuild. “I’m definitely happy with the way we played this season,” Samantha James, the second-year coach, said over the weekend.
James’s squad last week lost 46-34 to once-defeated Center Moriches and 43-35 to Mattituck, a game that the Bonackers were winning 31-30 at one point in the third quarter. Claire McGovern, East Hampton’s senior point guard, hit five 3-pointers in the game with the Tuckers.
James said she’ll miss her four senior starters — McGovern, Caroline DiSunno, Chloe Swickard, and Baye Bogetti — but expects Kaili Moore, a ninth grader who was the team’s leading rebounder this season, Katie Kuneth, a junior, and Susie DiSunno, a sophomore, to keep the ball rolling next year.
McGovern was the team’s top scorer this winter, with 129 points, after which came Kuneth with 109, Swickard with 105, and Moore with 102.
“The program’s looking pretty good,” said James, “though I’d like to stay in Division V, and forgo the playoffs as we did this winter, one more year.”
There would be open gyms again this summer, James said, adding that she was “trying to get a youth program started — that’s definitely one of my goals.”