Killer Bees Dominate St. Pius V This Time

St. Pius V had given the Bridgehampton boys basketball team its most competitive League VIII games this season, the most recent game being decided by a single point on January 11 on the Killer Bees’ home court. So when the two teams met this past Friday night, for the third time, it was expected to be another competitive game.

The Bees had other ideas.

Bridgehampton showed just how much it has improved, even in the nearly three weeks that have gone by since that last game, as it upended the Crusaders, 77-44, leading, more or less, from start to finish. The Bees improved to 15-0 in league play, 16-1 overall, and with three games remaining on its regular season schedule, it’s expected to officially wrap up the League VIII title this week.

Bridgehampton dominated on both sides of the ball, but since head coach Carl Johnson predicates much of his strategies around defense, he started there to praise his team on just how well it did. Even he was surprised at how much of a lopsided game it wound up being.

“The first two games they played us really tough. We’ve been making small, minor adjustments, watching tape, seeing where they’re vulnerable and where they struggle,” Johnson explained. “If we can contain [Matthew Polhanski], which we did today.”

The Bees limited the St. Pius V senior standout to just nine points. Johnson was quick to point out there wasn’t just one person covering Polhanski — it was a collective effort. Dominic Fantz, a junior, led the Crusaders with 13 points. St. Pius V only scored seven points in the second quarter.

“Especially on the defensive end, that’s what we preach,” Johnson said. “They’re a solid team. They run their stuff, they know where to go and where to hit. It was a great effort.”

Bridgehampton’s offense was equally impressive on Friday night with all five starters reaching double digits. Jaylen Harding led with a game-high 19 points, followed by Alex Davis’s 16 points, Jai Feaster’s 14, Xavier Johnson’s 11 and Jordan Harding’s 10. Jackson Harding, a freshman, had four points off the bench for the Bees.

This is not the first time Bridgehampton has had most or all of its starters reach double digits, and with the way the offense is progressing, it probably won’t be the last. With Davis coming off a career-high 40 points in an 86-62 victory over Southold on January 28, and him being second in scoring the very next game, it shows just how dynamic the Bees’ offense has become.

“It’s a team effort,” senior Jaylen Harding said of the team’s offense. “When we’re all out there moving the ball together, it’s really just what opens up for everybody. When we go into a game, it’s just all of us out there working together, looking for the open shot and getting that open shot. None of us think about scoring. The main goal is just winning.”

Coach Johnson said it’s every coach’s dream to have a balanced scoring attack that his team currently possesses. It’s far more complete than it was a year ago thanks to the addition of the Harding Brothers and Xavier Johnson.

“It just makes things easy, so no matter what defense they play they’re still going to have to worry about someone, and it gives someone else an opportunity to operate,” Coach Johnson said. “Jaylen had a great second half … Xavier and Jordan chipped in tonight also, and that way Jai and Alex don’t have that pressure on them to score all the time. And we didn’t miss a beat. When Alex is on, he’s on. He had a great game the other night and they knew he had the hot hand so they kept feeding him.”

Bridgehampton has proved itself to be a very good team up through this point of the season. Its only loss this season, back on December 14, came in the finals of the Kendall Madison Tip-Off Classic to host East Hampton. The Bees are currently ranked third in the most recent New York State Sportswriters Association Class D rankings.

But the schedule has certainly raised some questions on whether or not the Bees have been tested this season.

A scheduling quirk — for the lack of a better term — has League VIII teams playing each other three times each this season for a total of a full 18-game schedule, leaving very little to no room to play nonleague games, or tournaments, against different competition.

Coach Johnson was quite succinct when asked about his team’s schedule this season.

“I truly hate it,” he quickly said. “I think it’s a disservice to teams where you have to play each other three times, especially when you’re in the same class, then you have to meet them a fourth time. I think it’s unfair. I don’t know who has an advantage at that point. Yes, we won three, but that fourth game, you only need one game.”

He said comparatively, League VII, which included Southampton, Bayport-Blue Point, Babylon, Pierson and a handful of other teams, has the same exact amount of teams as League VIII, yet those teams only have to play each other twice, which leaves those teams the leeway to add additional nonleague games throughout the season.

Like many teams did this past Christmas break, Bridgehampton had two weeks off where all it could do was practice. Coach Johnson said he had an offer from a coach upstate to play in a tournament where it would have been three games guaranteed, with the possibility of even more games. He had to turn it down because he could only schedule two nonleague games, which took place in the Kendall Madison tournament.

Jaylen Harding said from a player’s perspective regarding the schedule they’re simply focused on playing who is put in front of them on game day.

“We’re not scared of anyone,” he said. “We feel like we’re the ones that other teams have to beat.”

“Hopefully Section XI will look at it and reexamine this,” Coach Johnson added of the scheduling issue. “Or split the league up, I don’t know; anything.”

The scheduling in the postseason doesn’t get any better.

After wrapping up the regular season on Friday against Shelter Island, the Bees will be the top-seeded team in the Suffolk County Class D tournament, which doesn’t have its championship game until March 2, at St. Joseph’s University in Patchogue at 5 p.m. A win in that game would advance the Killer Bees to the Regional Final, to be played at Center Moriches High School, but not until March 15.

“How can it be so spread out?” Coach Johnson asked. “It handicaps us, really. I think it’s the reason why Section XI hasn’t won too many state titles. Look at how we’re scheduling. The [regular season] schedule should be all the way up to February break. And then if you’re in the playoffs, your team is around scrimmaging, practicing, getting ready for next week where you can get ready for your playoff games and then be in line with the state tournament. All you need is three weeks.”