Pierson Boys Basketball Has Rebounded Nicely After Its Quick Three-Game Hiccup

The Pierson boys basketball team has seemed to put its three-game losing streak around the holidays well behind it. The Whalers’ 54-41 home victory over crosstown rival Bridgehampton on Friday evening was its fourth straight since that little bump in a road a few weeks ago.

Pierson improved to 8-2 in League V play, 8-5 overall.

“I think we’re starting to make some good changes,” head coach Will Fujita said on Monday morning. “Defensively, we’ve been much stronger and we’re doing a better job of rebounding the ball, and as we head toward the playoffs, those things are going to be really important to us.”

With just over two weeks remaining in the season, it’s slightly early for postseason talk, but the Whalers only need to win one of its final remaining seven games to ensure themselves of finishing the regular season with a .500 record, which is the prerequisite of any team in any league in the county. In a mixed classification league such as League V, which contains Class B, C and D teams, those parameters can be shifted a little bit with teams having the option to petition to get in.

There are only three Class C teams in Suffolk this season — Pierson, Port Jefferson and Southold. And in that order are where each team is in the standings as of Tuesday morning. Port Jeff seems to be in line of making the playoffs outright, while Southold, at 3-6 in league play, may need the help of a petition to qualify.

Fujita said the ideal scenario would be for all three teams to make it with his team earning the top seed and getting a bye into the county championship. That way, he said, he could scout both Port Jeff and Southold in the game prior. His least favorite scenario, Fujita said, would be no other Class C teams making the playoffs and therefore no meaningful games heading into the larger Section XI playoff games and all important regional and state games.

“We’ll be ready for whoever we end up playing,” he said. “We want to play basketball. We want to earn it.”

After losing to Mattituck, 63-42, on December 22, a game in which it was missing arguably its most potent offensive threat in Luke Seltzer, Pierson also lost, 52-49, to Class A school Mount Sinai, then suffered a 59-36 loss at home to Southampton in its first game out of the holiday break on January 4.

The Whalers haven’t lost since, though, rattling off four straight victories, most of the them lopsided, at Smithtown Christian (71-52), home over Shelter Island (76-23), at Ross (53-25), and then this past Friday night over Bridgehampton. The Killers Bees, to their credit, gave the Whalers their toughest, most competitive game of that stretch, and even held a 13-8 lead after the first quarter. Pierson eventually turned things around and didn’t separate itself really until the fourth quarter when it outscored Bridgehampton, 16-6.

Luke Seltzer led all scorers with 24 points in the win while Dom Mancino and Charlie McLean each scored 12 points. Fujita said he was not surprised at all by how well Bridgehampton played, especially early on.

“They have a good team. They came out of the gates with energy and we didn’t match that early,” he explained. “And that seems to be the theme this season. We’ve been able to continue to make adjustments throughout games where we win, but it would be nice to start the game with a lead and finish the game with that same lead. But it’s good during the regular season to face that kind of adversity early on. Come later in the season, I think we’ll be more prepared because of that, no matter what the circumstances are.”

Following its game at Greenport on Wednesday, Pierson will start a stretch where it will play larger “B” schools for the second time this season, including rematches against Mattituck and Southampton, before finishing the regular season against fellow “C” schools Port Jeff and Southold.

But first, Pierson will host its annual Spirit Night this Friday. The Pierson/Bridgehampton girls basketball team will get things started when it hosts Southold/Greenport at 5:15 p.m., followed by the boys who play Center Moriches. Fujita said it will be fun for him to be able to watch his youngest sister, Aiko Fujita, play in the girls game before manning the sidelines in the night cap, so he’ll be able to be a fan first before a coach.

“I’m excited about this second go-around,” he said. “I think we’re making the right efforts to get to where we need to be. I’d like to see better ball movement, especially as we gear up to play the ‘B’ schools again. That’s always a tough little stretch.”