Reed, Williams Will Now Lead Southampton Boys Basketball After Napier Departs Via Graduation

Last season was one for the record books for the Southampton boys basketball team.

After winning the League VII title with an undefeated record, the Mariners went on to win the Suffolk County Class B Championship, reached the Small Schools Championship — in which LeBron Napier scored his 1,000th career point — and reached the Long Island Class B Championship, where Southampton lost to Friends Academy.

All of which has led to a general consensus that Southampton is the team to beat this season in a realigned League V.

But head coach Herm Lamison pumped the brakes on those predictions and expectations heading into this season.

His main reason for doing so is that the team graduated six seniors from last season, three of whom were key starters, in Napier and fellow co-captains Ryan Smith and Andrew Venesina. Two others, Saintino Arnold and Seven Smith, were key contributors off the bench, and Kellen Jefferies was a depth piece.

“I don’t know who’s top dog,” Lamison said on Monday, “but we’re still very much a work in progress, so whatever they’re saying now, at the beginning of the season, doesn’t mean much, and won’t mean a whole lot at the end of the season.

“Our goals never change,” he added. “We aim for the highest point of the mountain and hope to get there. Some years we climb higher than others, but we hope to be in a position to get to the top at some point as we move on.”

What will help the Mariners is the fact that they have two returning starters this season, and two of some of the most dynamic players in the county in senior Derek Reed and sophomore Naevon Williams.

Reed was named to Newsday’s All Long-Island Second Team last year, on top of earning All-County, All-Conference and All-League honors. Lamison, last year’s League VII Coach of the Year, said Reed is one of the top guards on Long Island this season and one of the better two-way players, equally dependable on both offense and defense.

Williams missed some time last season, but when he was on the court for Southampton he more often than not proved he was one of the top freshmen on the island — he was named League VII Rookie of the Year and All-League — and he’ll be looking to build upon that success this season.

Even with those two players back, Lamison feels like the team’s approach has to change due to the departure of Napier, who could it do it all from an offensive standpoint. The Mariners simply won’t have that this season, he said.

“LeBron had an old school kind of game, where he loved contact and getting into the basket. He was special in that way. He didn’t mind getting beat up a little bit. Today’s kids are a little bit different,” he explained.

“So it has to change our approach in a lot of ways. We ran a lot of things through LeBron last year, so without him — he averaged 23 points per game and scored over 1,000 points in three and a half years, basically — we have a different make-up, and we have to make some adjustments on the fly.

“We’re working hard at it and the kids are committed to putting a good product out on the court every night and, hopefully, the results reflect that by the end of the year.”

Tyler Blake, who got some good minutes last year off the bench, including in the Long Island Championship game when Ryan Smith was in foul trouble, is first in line to receive many of the starter minutes left by some of the departures, Lamison said. The coach likes his 6-foot-4-inch frame, his midrange jump shot and how hard he worked in the offseason.

The rest of the starting lineup is still to be determined, Lamison said.

Senior Edgar Franklin provides good leadership when he’s out on the court. Ayden Eleazer lost about 50 pounds in the offseason, Lamison said, and has come in more agile and quicker even still at a big size.

Twin brothers and sophomores Tyson and Tyreese Riddick are both on varsity this season. Tyson made varsity as a freshman last season but didn’t see a ton of playing time, something Lamison said will change this season.

Numie Williams is also up from JV, as is Alex Franklin, Edgar’s younger brother, a freshman who will be in the rotation for minutes. Nikai Pierson, a 6-foot-4-inch sophomore, was expected to garner some key minutes this season, but he broke his arm in a scrimmage last week, Lamison said, and is expected to be out until around January.

Neimiah Mack, Declan Barbour and Joey Cerullo round out the rest of the roster.

Due to the new geographic placement in the county, the leagues are set up somewhat differently this season in basketball. The larger AA and A schools make up the first four leagues, while the smaller B, C and D schools all play in League V this season.

The Mariners, still a B school this season, will continue to battle with the likes of Babylon, Center Moriches and Mattituck. The rest of the league is made up of Class C state semifinalist Pierson, Southold and Port Jefferson, and Class D schools Bridgehampton, Greenport, Ross, Shelter Island and Smithtown Christian.

“Babylon is a good team. They play well all the time. Center is Center. Mattituck always puts out a good product on the floor. Pierson is another team we’ll have to get by, although they lost a lot players to graduation, but they’re still a good program,” Lamison said. “We’re not in any position to underestimate or look past any opponent.”

In the past week alone, Southampton has scrimmaged four teams, all bigger schools, and Lamison said that was done with purpose to really see where the team stands going into the season, which officially begins this weekend when the Mariners play in the Kings Park tournament, beginning this Friday against the host Kingsmen. Mount Sinai and Commack are also playing in the tournament.

Next weekend, Southampton will play in the Kendall Madison Tournament at East Hampton High School, and then the following weekend is the Mariner Athletic Booster Club Tournament, where the Mariners will host East Hampton, Riverhead and Archbishop Molloy.