Jorden Bennett Is X Factor in Hurricanes Overtime Victory Over Baymen

Jorden Bennett said his motivation for Friday night’s nonleague basketball game was simple: a cross-town rivalry.

After losing by 30 points or so last year to neighboring district Hampton Bays, the Westhampton Beach junior said there was no way that was going to happen when the two teams met once again on the Hurricanes home court on Friday night, and thanks to his efforts, he proved that to be true.

Bennett scored a game-high 36 points doing the majority of his damage in the second half and overtime, leading Westhampton Beach to a 90-83 victory over Hampton Bays. He also hauled in 17 rebounds.

“There’s definitely a chip on our shoulder. We wanted to come back and just get them back,” Bennett said after the game. “A couple of kids on their team were chirping, saying they were going to beat us by 40 again. We had to show them it’s not going to be like that this year.

“It means everything,” to get the win, he added. “Westhampton Beach is my community. I’m not from here, so I have to show them that I’m beneficial to the team. I want to show that I can really play … HB is not far from here. Everyone’s friends with everybody, everyone was talking about how the game is going to be packed out. We really needed this win a lot.”

The ’Canes were coming off losses in their first two games, their season opener to Longwood in which Bennett didn’t play, and then on December 5, a 71-66 home loss to Pierson. Meanwhile, Hampton Bays had won its first two nonleague games of the season, a 73-60 victory at home over Shoreham-Wading River and a 63-57 victory at Eastport-South Manor on December 2. Both Westhampton Beach head coach Connor Davis and Hampton Bays head coach Noah Brown knew that matchups favored the ’Canes, but that it was still anyone’s game, and that bore out as the game wore on.

Thanks in large part to Bennett’s 17 second-half points, Westhampton Beach led, 70-59, with about two minutes remaining in the game, and it looked like the Hurricanes would cruise to victory. But Hampton Bays senior Patrick Donahue (team-high 29 points), wouldn’t let his team go down easily. He completed a traditional three-point play that pulled his team to within six of the ’Canes’ lead, then drained a corner three that made it 70-67. In a rare low-point for Bennett on Friday night, he missed a pair of free throws that could have iced the game for his team. Instead, the Baymen came down the floor and senior Danny Wilson drained a three with 18.9 seconds left to tie the game, 70-70, eventually forcing overtime.

Both teams swapped leads in the four minute extra frame. After senior Andrew Mensch scored his second basket of overtime to give Westhampton Beach a 79-77 lead, sophomore Malachi Bullock followed up with a layup and was fouled. He made the ensuing free throw to give Westhampton Beach an 82-77 lead with just 40 seconds remaining. Bennett scored nine points in overtime, including all three of his free throws, to put the game out of reach this time.

Mensch said that after a quiet first half, he knew he had to have a much better second half. And he did, scoring five of his 11 points in overtime.

“After that performance in the first three quarters, I knew something had to turn up,” he said. “I’m the only senior on the court for most of the time, other than Isaiah [Ortiz], who played a big part in today’s game. But I was the only senior mostly on the court, and I just thought I should take on a little bit of leadership and not let my teammates down.”

While Bennett gets the spotlight for filling up the stat sheet, Westhampton Beach had a number of different contributors who played good minutes when Bennett had to sit out much of the second quarter in foul trouble. Dante Quinones, a junior, was the steadiest of those contributors with 15 points, while Bullock scored 11. Sophomore Truman Hahn scored eight points, as did Ortiz.

“Our bench was huge and provided us with a ton of energy,” Davis said of his team. “Isaiah Ortiz hit a big three off the bench that kept that run going. That’s very, very important for us. Everybody stepped up, and the energy and the environment here was amazing tonight. I couldn’t be more proud of these guys. We had just talked about how we’re all capable, but what are we willing to do to win a game? And I think our kids showed a lot of heart. We went down 10 at halftime, we fought our way back. They hit a big three at the end of the game, which was a great shot by them — a little defensive lapse there on us that could break some teams, but we stepped up in overtime and got the win. That was a big one for us.”

As for the Baymen, who lost their first league game at Sayville Monday night, 65-58, it was a tough first loss of the season. But as Coach Brown pointed out, he didn’t schedule any “easy” nonleague games this season and most games will probably be as close as they were on Friday night.

“I told this group of kids from the beginning, from the very beginning, fall league, that we’re going to have 20 dogfights this year. We didn’t schedule any cupcakes this year. We legitimately have 20 dogfights every game,” he said. “Everything is going to be close for us. We play in what I think is the toughest league in Suffolk County with four seriously tough nonleague games.”

Brown also mentioned how he was without his sixth man, sophomore Luca Lattanzio, due to a lacrosse tournament, and he could have helped here and there. But other kids, like Wilson (18 points) and freshman Xavier Johnson, certainly stepped up in his absence. Senior James Powers scored 20 points.

Donahue and fellow senior Isaiah Lattanzio said it was tough to lose a rivalry game, but that things look good overall going forward.

“We put up a good fight,” Donahue said. “Hit some big shots at the end. They had some shots, too. Unlucky at the end.”

“I was really happy with how we locked in at the end and played some good defense, some man-to-man defense, and knocking down some shots when the pressure is high,” Lattanzio added. “Can’t be mad at that. It was a good game. Obviously, we have to put in a lot of work still. It’s a tough league we’re in with some big schools we’re playing, but this was a good game to tell us where we are and what we have to do.”

Westhampton Beach opened its league season on Wednesday against East Hampton and after Friday night’s victory, the ’Canes felt they were ready.

“This feels great, because now we showed everybody. Like, last year, we were losing a lot, people weren’t coming to the games,” Bennett explained. “Now, we showed everybody that we’re competitors. We’re hoping that makes teams look at us and be scared, and people come to our games and fuel us up and make us feel very good.

“This certainly builds our confidence going into our first league game,” Davis said. “I feel like over our first three games, we grew up a lot. We’re starting to find our identity now, and I think that’s a huge step for us.”

Last week, Davis mentioned how he divides each part of the season into four quarters.

“Quarter two starts Monday,” he said. “We’re pretty excited.”