Pierson Boys Basketball Team's Historic Season Ends In New York State Class C Semifinals After Loss To Newfield

The magic that the Pierson boys basketball team had throughout its lengthy postseason run seemingly ran out at the New York State Class C Final Four.

The Whalers lost, 66-62, to Newfield (Section IV-Southern Tier/Binghamton) in the state semifinals at Cool Insuring Arena in downtown Glens Falls on Friday afternoon, falling a win shy of playing for a state title on Saturday night. Pierson was trying to win a state title for just the second time in school history, the first in 1978. Falling just shy of that goal was tough, head coach Will Fujita said, but that his team certainly has nothing to be ashamed of.

“I can’t tell you how proud I am,” he said right after the game. “They fought hard all year. They’ve acted with class everywhere that we’ve gone. They’ve stayed consistent, and they’ve been grateful throughout this entire process. I’m very proud of the boys.

“It’s tough to lose in the Final Four, but at the same time I think I have enough perspective to understand that what we’ve done this year is a great accomplishment,” he later added. “We went, whatever it was, 18-1 in league and won the Sportsmanship Award — not many teams win that many games and get credit for being good people, too. So I think that speaks to the character of these guys and the character of the program.”

Fujita admitted that nerves at the onset of Friday’s game may have been what led to his team facing a 22-11 deficit at the end of the first quarter. But the Whalers, as they’ve done all season long, particularly of late in come-from-behind victories over Carle Place in the Long Island Championship and Alexander Hamilton in the Regional Final, stormed right back in the second quarter. A basket by senior co-captain Charlie Culver capped a 9-0 run by Pierson, which eventually took the lead with 3:30 remaining in the first half on a basket by senior Dan Labrozzi. Senior co-captain Cecil Munshin then padded that lead with a pair of three-point plays, the first being a traditional three, the latter a shot from beyond the arc.

After trailing by 11 entering the second quarter, the Whalers outscored the Trojans, 23-8, to take a 34-30 lead, thanks in large part to Munshin, who scored 13 points in the first half. The senior said he knew Newfield would be targeting the Whalers’ leading scorer in Wilson Bennett, who had just scored 34 points in the Regional Final win over Alexander Hamilton.

“Coming off of Wilson’s dominant game against Hamilton, I knew Newfield would be focused on him, which would likely give me easier opportunities to score,” he explained. “My mindset was to let the game come to me, but I knew that it was going to be important for me to be aggressive offensively and look to take some of the load off of Wilson to give us the best chance of winning.”

Pierson junior Logan Hartstein nailed a pair of threes, the second of which gave the Whalers their first double-digit lead, 46-36, early in the third quarter. Munshin, who finished with a game-high 21 points, again helped keep that lead intact with a three that forced Newfield head coach Mike Nembhard to call a timeout. Directly out of the break, sophomore Aven Smith, who had missed the entire postseason leading up to Friday with injuries, hit a three and Labrozzi hit another three early on in the fourth quarter to push Pierson ahead, 56-47.

Newfield, as it had done successfully in the first quarter, went back to its full court press in the fourth, and that seemed to turn things around. Senior Trojan Derek Pawlewicz scored back-to-back baskets, the latter of which he made his free throw, with Pierson now clinging to a 58-56 lead with just under four minutes remaining. Two minutes later, Newfield freshman Hezekiah McCoy stole a pass at halfcourt and was fouled making his layup, which regained the lead for Newfield, then he sunk his free throw to make it a 62-60 game with 1:55 remaining.

Bennett made a pair of free throws to tie the game, 62-62, with 37.7 seconds left, but sophomore Austin Jenney found junior Zach Taylor open down low in the paint and he scored to give Newfield a 64-62 lead with 8.2 seconds left. After a timeout called by Fujita to draw up a potentially game-tying play, Bennett’s heave to halfcourt was intercepted by Pawlewicz, who was quickly fouled, and he iced the game by making both free throws.

Fujita gave a lot of credit to the Trojans for making in-game adjustments throughout and really limiting Bennett, who scored 15 points, below what he had been averaging this season, especially in the playoffs. Labrozzi finished with nine points and Hartstein with 8.

“I think they did a good job communicating and making sure they knew where I was on the court at all times, which made my other teammates get open shots and helped me get the ball to them in good scoring positions,” Bennett said of Newfield.

Newfield had an even distribution of scoring — Taylor led the way with 15, junior Jalen Hardison had 14, Pawlewicz and senior Garrett Porter each had 10 and Jenney finished with nine.

Newfield went on to defeat Stillwater (Section II-Capital District), 87-62, on Saturday night to win the state title.

“I give Newfield credit, they did a good job making defensive adjustments when they switched to the man,” Fujita said. “They did a great job containing both Wilson and Cecil. They did a good job putting pressure on our guys so it made it a little difficult to get to spots to run our sets. I think that Newfield did a nice job of getting to the hoop early. We were able to make adjustments to kind of limit that, but credit to them, they did a really nice job making adjustments necessary to win the game.”

Now comes the difficult part for Fujita and the rest of the program to say goodbye to a very impactful group of seniors who certainly made their mark on the program, which included Bennett, Culver, Labrozzi, Munshin, Brandon Winenga, Brendan Burke, who was given the Sportsmanship Award following Friday’s game, Regional Final hero Leo Butler and co-captain Pierre du Plessis.

Fujita said it will be very difficult moving forward without that group.

“I have been reflecting a lot on the time that we’ve spent together, because I started teaching at Pierson six years ago, so these guys were in seventh grade,” he explained. “So many of them bought into the idea of what we were trying to accomplish. We fell a little bit short of what we set out to do when they were 12, 13 years old, but like I said, I think that the comprehensive body of work that they put together over the last six years has just been tremendous.”

Lost in what is always a long winter season is the fact that this group managed to accomplish all that it did without being able to play a single game last season when the Pierson School District decided not to participate in the abbreviated winter sports season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fujita gave credit to all of his seniors and their work ethic for hunkering down and not making excuses despite not being able to play last year.

“When we didn’t have a season, we decided to do an AAU season in West Hempstead,” he explained. “For us, that’s an hour and a half every other weekend, two days a week, and they wanted to do it. Not all of those guys get minutes that you see in the game, but the value that all of them bring to the program is going to be something that I hope paves the way for these younger guys to watch and learn from.”

Not having a season was a bit of a double-edged sword for the Whalers. While it certainly pushed them to achieve as much success as they could this season, they missed out on the obvious, such as having a season together and achieving even more. Personally for Bennett, he missed being able to have his name on the school’s 1,000 career-point milestone banner, finishing just 150 points of that shy even though he only played two and a half years on varsity.

Bennett will continue his basketball career, having last month committed to Drew University, where he will major in business.

“I think not having a season last year really made us hungrier to want to get as far as possible,” Bennett explained. “We didn’t get that opportunity to make a mark last season, and that left us in a tough spot to go as far as possible in our last season. Not having a season last year really took the opportunity away from the seniors last year. At the beginning of this year, the goal was to win a county championship. As the season went on, we had a lot of speed bumps due to injuries and illnesses, but once everyone bought in to the way we play and the program Fujita built two years ago, we knew we could make a deep push into the playoffs and make history.”

Munshin, who made a formidable one-two punch with Bennett for Pierson this season, felt similar sentiments.

“Making the Final Four was a surreal and redeeming experience following a year where our entire season was canceled,” he said. “Losing our season was pretty demoralizing and was difficult to accept knowing the potential we had and all the work we had put in. Putting the opportunity of coming to play in the state tournament in perspective with last year gave us a lot to be grateful and appreciative of. It was a special moment and we all came into it looking to elevate our level of play.

“Knowing that we weren’t able to play last year, and that this would be the last chance for me and the many other seniors to play as a team, definitely fueled us in the offseason and kept us locked in throughout the season,” Munshin continued. “We were constantly focused on going as far as we could in route to a state championship, that was definitely one of the main sources of motivation for us.”

Munshin added that he is certainly going to miss his time with the team.

“I’m beyond grateful for both my teammates and coaches. My coaches for pushing us individually and as a team, making sure we stayed consistent every day, and stayed grateful for the opportunity to play at all, remembering we didn’t have the chance to play at all just a year ago. We wouldn’t have been the team we were or the individuals we are today without their dedication and wisdom.

“And for my teammates and the bond we’ve developed over our high school and basketball careers,” he continued, “both the older and younger guys on the team have been amazing teammates on and off the court, which is something I’ll always cherish.”

Fujita thanked the Sag Harbor Booster Foundation and the school’s administration for helping the team throughout this season, but ultimately thanked his players, particularly his seniors, for the memorable experience.

“Very, very grateful for the experience that I had with them,” he said. “It’s tough, they’re wonderful kids.”

The next crop of players that will take the mantle next season got a great deal of playing time this season, like Hartstein, sophomores Dom Mancino, Keanu King and Charlie McLean, and junior Fritz Desir. Only time will tell whether they have another state Final Four run in them, but Fujita didn’t count that out.

“We don’t run this program to not try and get to the Final Four, to win the state championship every year,” he said. “I think that this experience for the younger guys was very valuable. I think that they learned so much from the leaders that we have. I just hope that they take what they did this year, use it as fuel. Ultimately, this is just a building block for better things to come.”