Poor Shooting Leads to Southampton's Loss to Brentwood in Section XI Championship

It’s a feeling the Southampton boys basketball team hasn’t felt in nearly two months, and one the Mariners hoped they wouldn’t feel again for the rest of their short season.

The team lost, 64-61, to Brentwood in the Section XI Championship at Stony Brook University on Saturday. It was the Mariners’ first loss since suffering a 78-63 defeat at the hands of St. John The Baptist on January 7.

The Mariners played their Long Island Championship against Nassau County Champion Malverne on Wednesday. Results of that game occurred too late to appear in this week’s edition, but can be found online at 27east.com and in next week’s edition. But a loss in that game would have effectively ended the boys season.

Typically, smaller Class B schools such as Southampton have an outside shot of defeating the larger schools for the overall county title. Center Moriches, coached at the time by Bridgehampton graduate Nick Thomas, was the last ‘B’ school to win it all in the 2018-2019 season, but prior to that it had been well over a decade since it happened.

But the Mariners showed they could, at the very least, hang with the Class AA Champion Indians taking a slim 10-9 lead into the second quarter. It was in that frame where both teams had a hard time getting any of their shots to fall, which eventually led to them being knotted up at halftime, 23-23.

After a pair of quick back-to-back baskets to start the second half by Southampton, Brentwood started to show signs of how, as a seventh-seed in the ‘AA’ bracket, it ran through its county tournament, and Mariners’ freshman starter Alex Franklin picked up his fourth and fifth fouls consecutively to foul out.

Brentwood senior guard Freddy Diogene scored on a layup, was fouled and made his ensuing free throw to make it a 31-27 game in favor of his team, then Brentwood junior Marquese Dennis continued to show his athletic ability with his third dunk of the game, which forced Southampton head coach Herm Lamison to call a timeout.

Not soon after the break, Brentwood sophomore Tyrell Davender drained a three, then Dennis came back, went up and under the basket to score and was fouled. He made his free throw and the Indians had their biggest lead of the game at 45-36 going into the fourth quarter.

It was also in the third quarter when it became quite clear that Southampton had been struggling from the free throw line — getting 7 of 18 heading into the fourth — and had not made one of its 11 three-pointers. And that was a running theme throughout the rest of the game.

When sophomore Jerimiah Webb committed his fourth foul and had to sit out for some time, that seemed to get Southampton back on track. Both senior Derek Reed and sophomore Naevon Williams, the Mariners’ two most potent offensive threats, started to insert themselves a little bit more — Reed scored 10 of his game-high 24 points in the fourth, Williams scored seven of his 21 in the frame.

Then, with 1:24 remaining in regulation, sophomore Tyson Reddick made the Mariners first three of the game that pulled them within three of Brentwood’s 59-56 lead. With the Indians now in the double bonus, Dennis made one of his two free throws, but Reddick came right back down and hit another three to make it a one-point game, 60-59, in favor of the Indians with just about a minute remaining.

After Dennis made both of his free throws to give Brentwood a 62-59 lead, Williams came down the court with a strong layup that made it a one-point game. On the line to tie the game at 62 apiece with 10.4 seconds left, Williams missed his free throw. Southampton tried committing a foul on the ensuing inbounds pass, but the official closest to the play never called a foul and time seemed to run out.

But after conferring with one another, officials agreed to call the foul, but they only put one second back on the clock. Brentwood made both of its shots to make it 64-61, Reed took the inbounds pass and heaved a halfcourt shot that fell short and the game was officially over.

Lamison said after the loss that missing 16 free throws, and to a lesser extent 11 three-pointers, cost his team the game. And he didn’t appreciate how things at the end of the game turned out, either.

“We were looking to foul, and based how the officials had been calling the game all game, we fouled and we didn’t get the call,” he said. “There were 10.2 seconds left when we were trying to foul to stop the clock, at least put them on the line, give us more time to play. But I got an official standing just as close as I am to the action, and makes questionable calls all game long, but he won’t make that call. And he’s got to know, as to having some knowledge of the game, what we’re trying to do. We’re smothering the guy.”

Lamison added that he figured it was going to be a close game and even strategized with that thinking, so to be in that position, late in the game and not get a call like that was tough. Still, had his team made even half of its free throws, or just shot better from the floor in general, it may not have come down to that.

“Listen, you miss 16 free throws, PAL teams are going to push you right now,” he said. “Malverne is a good team, a good program, they’re solid. If we come out and miss 16 free throws and do some of the things that we did today, that we’re not accustomed to doing, then we’re going to be having the same conversation that we did tonight.”