Hampton Bays Boys Basketball Looks To End Playoff Drought This Season; Girls Look for Quick Rebound Season

Despite going 4-14 overall last season, Hampton Bays boys basketball head coach Noah Brown is expecting big things from his team this season.

While he wouldn’t necessarily categorize it as a playoff-or-bust type of campaign, Brown put it a different way.

“I think I’d much rather be the hunter, not be the hunted,” he said.

Although the Baymen graduated a handful of players — including starters and co-captains James Salas and Chris Sanchez, among others, such as another captain in Stephen Sutton, James Clinton, James Kiernan and Dillon Ottati — they have their main core intact, with three-year varsity starters in senior Kazmin Pensa-Johnson and junior Isaiah Lattanzio, along with another junior, Patrick Donahue, who played his way into the starting lineup last season.

With those three back, Brown hopes to end what has been a lengthy 10-year absence from the playoffs for the program.

“We’re returning a core group of guys. These guys are basketball players,” Brown said. “Between open gyms in the spring, Brookhaven fall and summer leagues, they’re experienced. We certainly can’t use inexperience as a factor in not winning anymore. We have been geared toward making a push toward the playoffs to this point.”

Brown said that the two vacant starting positions left by Salas and Sanchez haven’t been totally sealed just yet, but seniors Noah Thompson and Gianni Scotto appear to have the early track on them. Thompson didn’t see much playing time last season, Brown said, but he’s greatly improved, specifically in rebounding. And Scotto did play quite a bit off the bench last season. He can run the offense and also shoot from the outside a bit.

Also returning are seniors Will Mendel and Zack Hafemeister. New to the team are juniors Danny Wilson, Frank Galeas and freshman Luca Lattanzio, Isaiah’s younger brother. The team also has a trio of first-year seniors in Sam Billingham, Alan Canales and Ryan Barczak, the last of whom is a transfer from neighboring Westhampton Beach.

Hampton Bays will play in a realigned League IV, which was dubbed by the county as a Class A “East” league. The Baymen will play crosstown rival Westhampton Beach as well as another East End foe, East Hampton, along with Bayport-Blue Point, Comsewogue, Eastport-South Manor, Miller Place, Mount Sinai, Rocky Point, Sayville and Shoreham-Wading River.

Brown said he loves the new league that is based on geographic location, not solely on enrollment numbers.

“I absolutely love it. We still have competition. Mount Sinai might be one of the best teams in the county. Bayport is always a good team. And, rightfully so, we get to play teams like Westhampton and East Hampton, teams we hadn’t played regularly, but to now have those games matter that much more and to support those local rivalries, I’m excited to play them. Sayville and Comsewogue are some teams that we’ve never played before, at least that I can remember, but they can be neat also.”

Brown added, “It kind of reminds me of the NFL, where you have some top dogs, but everybody has a chance. It’s an ‘any given Sunday’ type of thing, and we have to be prepared for each game. We can’t take any game lightly, can’t overlook a team. There’s some good balance there.”

Hampton Bays hosted Bridgehampton in a nonleague game Wednesday night and will host Greenport in another nonleague game on Friday at 4:30 p.m. before playing at Mattituck on Saturday at 2 p.m.

The Hampton Bays girls basketball season was expecting to take a step forward last season, with a good mix of upperclassmen leading the next class of players on varsity. But key injuries during the team’s first win of the season quickly derailed things, leading to what would wind up being a 1-19 season.

But with an added year of experience and another crop of young players making the jump to varsity, things could change quickly for the Baymen — and winning their first game of the season, 41-34, over a well-coached Southampton team on November 21 is a good indication of where the team could be headed.

Sophomore Asha Pensa-Johnson proved to be a force in that game, scoring a game-high 20 points and also grabbing 16 rebounds, leading Hampton Bays to a commanding 28-13 halftime lead. As head coach Darryl Johnson noted, foul trouble and a limited bench — three players fouled out, forcing Hampton Bays to finish the game with just four starters — allowed Southampton to come back with a strong third quarter, but the Baymen held on for the victory.

Nicole Lupercio, a senior, added 11 points, nine rebounds and two blocks, and junior Tania Quiros had six points, four assists and seven rebounds.

The return of Pensa-Johnson, who is the coach’s daughter, plus Lupercio, and seniors Mia Camey and Sophia Corredor make up what Johnson’s calling the team’s “core four” and will help guide the team throughout the season.

Junior Nellie Nicolova and freshman Eden Brown are up from JV and will provide some needed depth, Johnson said. Pensa-Johnson, Corredor, Quiros and Nicolova are all coming off an extended volleyball season, in which they helped the girls volleyball team reach the county championship, and Johnson is hoping that success rubs off a little bit on the basketball court.

Senior Haley Weissbard, juniors Jordyn Heaney and Itzel Lopez, sophomore Kaya Raynor, and freshman Shea Egan round out the girls roster.

“We have added exceptional talent and athleticism from our underclassmen to complement our ‘core four,’” he said. “We have good numbers, which has fostered very competitive practices, which has paid early dividends in our first game and win at Southampton.”

Similar to the boys, the Baymen girls will play in League IV East this season, which is built exactly how the boys league is, save for East Hampton, which is playing down in League V this season.

Ultimately, the team’s goal, Johnson said, is return the program to the glory it once had — it was a perennial playoff team year after year that was contending for county titles.

“Our expectations are high, so our foundation must be solid,” Johnson added. “We keep it simple: work, grind and shine.”