No nail was left unbitten at the Kendall Madison championship on Saturday. The Bonackers basketball team beat the Bridgehampton Killer Bees by just 2 points in a tight defensive game, with a final score of 47-45.
“I was happy for the boys that we could tough out a win in a very low-scoring dog fight,” said the head coach, Dave Conlon. “It was a defensive game with not a ton of fast breaks.”
The tournament is named for Kendall Madison, a talented East Hampton student-athlete who played football and basketball, and ran spring track. Madison died in 1995 at just 21 years old after being stabbed in the parking lot of the former Kristie’s nightclub. He was a senior at the University of Connecticut at the time, where he was playing football on a full scholarship. The high school basketball championship raises money for the Kendall Madison Foundation, which funds a $10,000 scholarship for a student-athlete who exemplifies Madison’s dedication to sports, community service, and academics.
Mason Jefferson was named the championship game’s most valuable player, with a team-leading 22 points. He hit six 2-pointers, three 3-pointers, and one free throw. Miles Menu was named to the all-tournament team, scoring 11 points on three baskets and five free throws, while also leading the defense.
“Mason did most of the ball-handling duties and scored for us, and Miles continued to give us great defense, rebounding, and scoring,” Conlon said. “Liam Wilson played great defense the entire game. Trevor Meehan was Mr. Hustle again, getting timely rebounds and getting on the ground for loose balls.”
Meehan is one of the most fascinating stories of the season. The senior is a standout left-handed pitcher on the baseball team who has already committed to play at Bridgeport University next fall. This is his first year on varsity basketball, and in his first few games, he’s not only starting but shining.
“We’ve seen him in practice, but practice is different, so it was really fun to see him really help the team and give it a big boost and be really active on the boards, getting putbacks and just being ready to play,” Conlon said.
East Hampton was playing without one of its stars, the all-county senior Toby Foster, who was ejected from the Bonackers’ first game of the tournament the night before — a 74-50 blowout against Mattituck — after two technical fouls. The ejection came with a one-game suspension that not only kept Foster out of the game, but out of the building, forcing him to watch from home. His first technical came on a slam dunk, in which the referee claimed Foster taunted the Tuckers. Conlon says he could understand that call, but he definitely had a problem with the second one. With 4:26 left in the third quarter, the referee blew the whistle while Foster was bringing the ball down the court. Foster kept going and dunked. The ref threw him out of the game.
“He just played through the whistle. You teach your kids to always play through the whistle. Toby played through the whistle and finished it,” Conlon said. “That’s unfortunate. I thought it was a really tough call.”
Conlon was worried that Foster’s absence would put the team in a bad spot in the championship game, but they found a way to win, even with the same referee at the helm. The victory capped off a stellar week for the team, which is now 3-0 after also winning the home opener on Dec. 10, a 73-56 victory over Islip. Foster led the team with 24 points in that game, while Jefferson scored 20, Menu scored 18, and Meehan had 10 points on the night. Aaron Brito added a free throw to round out the scoring.
Coach Conlon liked what he saw from the start. “We’re a good transition team. When we get out and go, with Mason and Toby, we can really push it. And if Miles is getting that board — and sometimes Miles starts the fast break himself, for a big guy. We did that pretty well, but teams are going to know what we do well and are going try to take it away. It’s a long season and this is just the first game.”
Conlon has also identified what they need to work on to keep winning games. “Over all our defense was pretty good, especially in the paint, but it still needs to get better. We had some lost assignments on the perimeter that gave up some perimeter 3s, which we need to do better on. I think we need to work on composure and sometimes pace of play.”
