After Winning Host Holiday Classic Tournament, Mariners Drop Games at Bay Shore Holiday Classic

With early-season injuries to a number of starters, and after losing their season opener, 67-53, to Port Washington at Nassau Coliseum on December 11, the Southampton boys basketball team turned to some home cooking to get them right, and it certainly seemed to cure all ills, or at least some of them.

The Mariners buried Mattituck, 69-29, at home in what was both teams’ League VI opener of the season on December 20, then they swept both games of their host Mariner Holiday Classic tournament against a pair of solid teams. Southampton defeated Archbishop Molloy “B” team, 66-45, on Friday, December 22, then defeated the Stony Brook School, 86-68, the following night in front of a capacity crowd.

After starting the season with a tough loss and a handful of injuries, the Mariners are now 3-1 as players slowly start to come back and get into midseason form. Southampton head coach Herm Lamison liked what he saw from his team in its host tournament.

“We needed it after an embarrassing loss to a really good team at the Coliseum,” he said. “Springboard that to Friday, after beating Mattituck, and we beat Archbishop and Stony Brook, and neither one of those teams were slouches.

“We’re not at 100 percent, and it looks like we have more issues for this weekend’s games, with a starter still out and we’ll be missing our sixth man, so we’ll have to keep finding different ways to get through,” Lamison added.

Tyson Reddick, the junior they call “Splash,” scored a career-high 34 points that included 10 made three-pointers tying assistant coach Nick Epley’s school record (2008-2009), in the victory over the Stony Brook School, which is now led by former Bridgehampton coach and player Ron White. On top of Reddick’s school record-tying performance, the Mariners got major contributions from junior Naevon Williams, who scored 24 points in the championship game, and after scoring a game-high 21 points the previous night against Archbishop, he was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.

Lamison said Williams is starting to look like himself after an early-season injury kept him from going 100 percent early on.

“Naevon was just spectacular. He was awesome,” the coach said. “Tyler Blake had really good back-to-back games. Alex [Franklin] was solid.”

But someone Lamison made it a point to highlight was senior Nakai Pierson, who may not have filled up the stat sheet, but more than made up for it on the defensive end leading to being named to the All-Tournament Team.

“Nakai is a one-man wrecking crew when it comes to defensive schemes,” he said. “He’s the kind of guy coaches love to have because he doesn’t care about scoring. He scored three points in the championship, but was still named All-Tournament, and that’s huge for any coach at any level because not only is he willing to play strong defense, but he relishes in his role at it.

“Noomie Williams is another player where he is a starter, but doesn’t necessarily get a ton of minutes,” Lamison added. “But his talk and communication locks us in defensively, and he doesn’t score a lot either, maybe three, four, five points per game. But he accepts his role, and it’s nice to have two kids who are like that. Everybody just wants to score and those are the kids that get the headlines, but it’s when you have players who don’t care about that and still impact the game in a positive way that strengthens your team overall.”

Lamison said it was different playing against White, who, among other roles at the Stony Brook School, is also the boys basketball team’s head coach. Both Lamison and White were a part of a group of Black coaches who were honored this summer for having impacted the East End specifically in a positive way through their coaching and mentorship. It was at that event that White had announced he was leaving Bridgehampton to take the job at Stony Brook, paving the way for New York State Hall of Fame head coach Carl Johnson to return to Bridgehampton.

“It was different from the standpoint that in his position that he’s in now he can recruit players from all over, and I understand he was missing a few kids in the tournament,” Lamison explained. “But he’s in a really big-time position over there and I think it’s a good position for Ronny and they’re going to do really well, they’ll be just fine. This was a good homecoming for him.”

Southampton is still without senior Dominick White, the transfer from Westhampton Beach, who scored 18 points in that season-opening loss to Port Washington before exiting with a dislocated thumb. There is currently no timetable for White’s return, but both Naevon Williams and Alex Franklin, who were also hurt early on, seem to be getting more and more healthy, and they’ll be leaned upon heavily in White’s absence.

Mariners Lose Both Games

In Bay Shore

Staring down at facing two of the premier large schools in Bay Shore and Brentwood, and still not 100 percent, the Mariners went into the inaugural Marcus and Morgan Damas Foundation Holiday Classic on Friday at Bay Shore High School with the idea of carrying over their strong play from their own holiday tournament just a week ago and just continuing to play good basketball. While at times they showed spurts of strong play, the Mariners ultimately lost both games. After losing, 62-47, to host Bay Shore on Friday, Southampton lost, 67-61, to Brentwood on Saturday.

Southampton kept up with Bay Shore as both teams were knotted up, 16-16, after the first quarter, but the Marauders outscored the Mariners, 36-19, through the second and third quarters, which was the difference in the game. Naevon Williams scored a game-high 21 points while Franklin chipped in with 18 points.

Saturday’s game against Brentwood was somewhat of a rematch of last season’s Section XI Championship, where the Mariners stood toe-to-toe with the Indians, but ultimately lost the game due to poor free throw shooting. The two teams played another contest this past weekend, and Southampton outscored Brentwood, 18-8, in the third quarter, then tied the score at 49 with 6:35 left in the fourth. But thanks to a couple of big buckets from Devon Snell and Devin Clarke, Brentwood held on for the victory. Franklin scored 17 points, Naevon Williams scored 15 and Tyler Blake contributed with 12.

Five of the Mariners’ next six games are on the road, a stretch that began Wednesday at Center Moriches and will continue Friday evening when they’ll play at Shoreham-Wading River at 6:45 p.m. Southampton will then compete in the Gary Charles Tip of the Hat Hoop Classic on Sunday at Chaminade High School, where it’ll take on Kellenberg at 12:45 p.m. before playing at Port Jefferson the very next day at 4:30 p.m.