Bridgehampton Sophomore Alex Davis Reaches 1,000 Career Points

Following the game in which he scored in his 1,000th career point, sophomore Alex Davis pointed to the one thing that’s fueled him since joining the Bridgehampton varsity boys basketball team as a seventh grader: tradition.

“I was a little kid watching those three guys — J.P. Harding, Josh Lamison and Tylik [Furman]. I watched them as a little kid every day,” he said. “I told my mom, ‘I want that thousand.’ Today was the day.”

Harding was the last Killer Bee to reach 1,000 career points in 2018. Furman and Lamison both reached the threshold in 2016. Carl Johnson was a coach to all three, and was proud of his latest player to achieve the feat.

“Any time you reach 1,000 points, it’s always a great accomplishment. And like I always tell people, 1,000 points, you didn’t do it by yourself. You’ve got a lot of teammates that helped you get there,” he said. “I’m really happy for him. A thousand points is out of the way, now we can move forward.”

Davis reached 1,000 points on the front end of two free throws with 1:31 remaining in the third quarter on Thursday, January 18, in what wound up being a surprising 64-52 home loss to the Ross School. After sinking the free throw, the home crowd stood in celebration and Davis put his arms up in elation. Bridgehampton Athletic Director Michael DeRosa handed Davis a ball commemorating the feat in addition to a bouquet of flowers that Davis then gave to his mother, Kelley. Alex then took a family photo with his mom, sister Alexis and father Randy.

After the quick break, Davis added to his career total by hitting his second free throw, then went to work on bringing his Bees back. Facing a double team most of the night from Ross, Davis, after scoring six points in the first half, scored eight of his game-high 22 points in the third. But it wasn’t enough, as the Ravens held on for the hard-fought victory.

Wyatt Yektai led Ross with 20 points, Rowan O’Brien added 17 and the 6-foot-6-inch German product Hunter Tietz chipped in with 14. Jai Feaster and Adrian Molina each scored 10 points for Bridgehampton, while Mikhail Feaster scored five points.

It was disappointing for Davis to achieve his feat in a loss, and he admitted that he wasn’t himself with the feat looming over his head. But now that it’s over, Davis said he can focus on helping the team reach the playoffs and defend the county title, while also making a push for his next personal goal, 2,000 career points, which only 16 boys on Long Island have ever achieved.

“It was kind of hard playing like that because I knew I wanted it so bad,” he said. “I had it in my mind. I couldn’t focus and hit my shots. I wanted to achieve it and get it out the way at the same time. Tired of thinking about it. When I got it, it definitely took some pressure off.”

Johnson said Davis wasn’t on top of his game, and that the feat almost became a distraction. He agreed that Ross came out equally hyped up for the game and put together a good game plan in limiting Davis. But, at the end of the day, his team overall didn’t play well.

“I thought, defensively, we didn’t have any intensity, and we turned the ball over way too much, and we missed 12 free-throws,” Johnson said. “That shows you the lack of concentration right there. We were caught up in the moment. Then again, when you’ve got four sophomores, they’re going to get caught up in the moment. They haven’t learned to play without distractions. Everybody says, ‘They’ve been here a long time.’ But they’re still young.”

Being young and generally inexperienced at the varsity level is what Johnson said has led to the ups and downs of his team this season. The Bees (5-3 in League VII, 8-5 overall) were about a week out from their biggest win of the season, 69-61, at Smithtown Christian, flipping an earlier loss to the Knights, arguably the Bees’ biggest competition for the county championship this season. The Bees then defeated host Southold, 72-55, on January 17, before taking the loss at home to Ross. They did regroup and respond to that loss the very next night on Friday at Ross — Bridgehampton’s third game in as many days — defeating the Ravens, 68-42, where sophomore Jai Feaster led the way with 30 points, leading to the Bees’ fourth victory in five games.

Johnson wouldn’t use it as an excuse for his team’s loss to Ross last week, but he did say he was bit disappointed that his team had to play three games in as many days, something that is extremely rare at any level of basketball, whether it be high school, college or even the professional level. Johnson said he actually contacted Southold in the days leading up to that game to see if it wouldn’t mind rescheduling it to January 23 and both teams actually agreed to do so. Section XI, however, denied the change.

“I’m a little disturbed by that,” he said. “You talk about the safety of the kids and the health of the kids, these are high school kids. Just give us a fair shake, give us a fighting chance. We’re still talking about kids playing back-to-back games. This is not the NBA. I don’t think any college teams play back-to-back.”

Bridgehampton played at Greenport on Wednesday, and is scheduled to play on Shelter Island this Friday, January 26, at 6:15 p.m. before hosting Smithtown Christian on Tuesday, January 30, at 6 p.m.