Southampton Tops Pierson To Earn League VI Title Outright, Will Host Kings Park in Playoff Opener This Saturday

Although the Southampton boys basketball team came into the season with one of its deepest, most talented rosters in recent memory, it was far from a given that the team would win the league title outright, given its early-season injuries to key players.

After a season-opening loss to Port Washington at Nassau Coliseum, and additional losses to large schools Bay Shore and Brentwood, and then the team’s first league loss in two years at Bayport-Blue Point, it was clear the Mariners were going to have their work cut out for them.

To their credit, though, the Mariners put their heads down and got to work in the second half of the season, the result of which is the League VI title after its 88-41 victory at Pierson in the regular-season finale for both teams on February 14.

In order to win the league outright, Southampton (13-1 in League VI, 16-4 overall) needed to flip that earlier loss to Bayport, which it did with a deciding victory at home. The Mariners also got a little bit of help from their Sag Harbor neighbors, who also defeated Bayport this season, but they’ve won eight games in a row and 13 of their last 14 and have only lost back-to-back games once this season — to Bay Shore and Brentwood.

In other words, they earned it.

“It’s a good feeling,” to win the league title, head coach Herm Lamison said. “One of our first goals we wanted to achieve as a team this season was to win the league title, so we did that. Pierson was missing one of its starters, we were missing starters, but I’m pleased with the way the kids were focused and determined to win the game.”

Lamison added that not having his full complement of players early on proved to be quite difficult.

“It was challenging from a coaching standpoint because we had a lot of days of practice where we didn’t have seven or eight guys at practice. I mean real core guys not practicing because of injuries and various things. And it’s difficult to have any type of continuity and to glue the guys together when that happens,” he said. “Most teams have probably played at least 75 percent of their games together at full strength. That’s something we still haven’t been able to do, which makes it challenging as a coaching staff. But I’m happy with the fact that we were able to achieve what we’ve achieved thus far. We’ll start to really put things together over this week and move forward.”

As Lamison noted, Southampton was missing two of its starters in juniors Naevon Williams and Tyson Reddick against Pierson — which was missing one of its own key starters in Charlie McLean. That added a little bit of mystery as to how the game was going to go before tip-off, but after a close first quarter in which Southampton only led, 14-11, it started to take over the game with a 26-12 second quarter that it only stretched out more over the rest of the game.

Southampton senior Dominick White scored a game-high 29 points and just missed a triple-double with nine rebounds and nine assists. Sophomore Alex Franklin scored 20 points and had 10 rebounds and six assists, while seniors Tyler Blake and Nehemiah Mack picked up some of the scoring load with 11 points and six rebounds for Blake and eight points and five rebounds for Mack.

Southampton was seeded second in the Suffolk County Class A playoffs, which begin this Saturday, February 24, when they will host No. 7 Kings Park at noon. Elwood-John Glenn, which won League V, was given the top seed in Class A, something that Lamison didn’t agree with. Although the Knights did play in a league with all Class A teams, whereas the Mariners played in a league that was split in half with Class A and B schools, Lamison said his team had the better record, played a tougher schedule overall and Glenn lost to a nonplayoff team in Islip. As the top seed, and because there was an odd number of teams that qualified for the playoffs, Glenn was able to get a first-round bye — something Lamison said he would have liked to have, given the team’s injury history.

“It doesn’t matter at this point because you have to play to win or you go home,” he said. “As a team, we were trying to get that one seed to possibly get that bye in the first round, but even as a two or three seed, ultimately you’re still going to have to play a lot of these teams that they put in front of you. I’m not crying about the fact that we’re the two, just raising the point. Either way, you have to win now. There’s no room for errors.”

Kings Park and Southampton have a little bit of recent history together. The Mariners took down the Kingsmen in last year’s Small Schools Championship of the Section XI tournament that is no longer contested, at least this season. Matthew Garside, who finished his high school career last season as the all-time leading scoring in Kings Park history, has since graduated. But Lamison said Thomas Matonti is still there and is one of the most lethal deep shooters on Long Island, and the Kingsmen are still an overall threat.

“They’re a very well coached, disciplined team, and we can’t get ahead of ourselves at all or they’ll make us pay,” he said. “I think any team in these playoffs can beat any team, and that’s the beauty of sports. You could be the favorite or the underdog, you still have to play the game, and the results are the results. It’s playoff basketball. There are no easy games in the playoffs because it’s a new season.

“Right now, we’re in a good space,” Lamison said of his own team. “We need to stay healthy and work diligently over these next five days or so, and be at our best when it comes time to play on Saturday.”