Riverhead Takes Final Game Of Mariner Athletic Club Holiday Classic Over Host Southampton

Riverhead took home bragging rights after defeating host Southampton, 62-59, in the third and final game of the Mariner Athletic Club Holiday Classic on December 29.

The tournament was originally slated to showcase four teams — Southampton, East Hampton, Riverhead and Archbishop Molloy — but Archbishop Molloy came up with a positive COVID-19 case on Christmas Day and therefore pulled out of what was supposed to be a two-day tournament starting on December 28. Southampton head coach Herm Lamison explained that without being able to find a team to replace Archbishop on such short notice, the tournament was changed to a round-robin format so as to get the remaining three teams their originally scheduled two games each.

Riverhead defeated East Hampton, 61-50, in the first game on December 27, then East Hampton gave Southampton a bit of the scare the following day, leading the Mariners by as many as 18 points early in the third quarter. But Southampton got to work defensively late in the third quarter and started to feed its senior big-man LeBron Napier in the paint, which led to a 69-60 victory, before the Blue Waves took the third game on December 29.

Lamison said it was his team’s inconsistencies that led to its loss against Riverhead. After falling behind, 13-8, after the first quarter, the Mariners turned things around and outscored the Blue waves, 27-22, to take a 48-35 lead at halftime. But the Waves responded in the third and outscored the Mariners, 22-12, to take a slight 48-47 lead into the final frame where they eventually pulled away.

Lamison said his team had a number of chances to either tie or take the lead late in the game, including a last-second three-pointer as time expired, but it didn’t fall.

“We were inconsistent in a lot of areas where if we’re at full strength we may not have been,” he said. “But that’s not to make excuses — we have players that are capable, and at the end of the day, we still had ourselves in a position to win the game.”

Southampton has been without starting freshman Naevon Jenkins since after its victory at Center Moriches on December 21. Lamison said he expects to have him back at some point this week. Seven Smith, a senior, also suffered a high-ankle sprain in the loss to Riverhead and could miss some time.

For nearly three quarters, it looked like East Hampton was going to spoil what was an expected victory for Southampton last week. The Bonackers controlled the game in nearly every facet with sharp shooting, stingy defense and crisp passing. Even when junior Jack Dickinson — Bonac’s most potent offensive threat with junior Luke Reese out for the season — got into foul trouble, players stepped up off the bench. It was sophomore Mike Locascio’s three-pointer early in the third quarter that pushed East Hampton’s lead to 18 at 46-28.

At that point, Southampton went to its full-court press on defense, which seemed to give East Hampton fits. And with about two minutes remaining in the third, the Mariners also got Napier more involved, especially in the paint. Whatever didn’t fall for Napier, he was able to get fouled and go to the line, forcing East Hampton into even more foul trouble.

With time expiring in the third, Southampton forced a turnover at halfcourt and eventually found Napier under the basket who scored as time expired, cutting East Hampton’s lead to single digits, at 51-43, which Lamison said was the plan going into the second half.

“I thought if we could get it down to single digits, to have an accomplishment like that, I thought it would give us a little more confidence in our ability to come back and try and take the game away,” he explained.

It certainly did, as Southampton went on a 5-0 run to start the fourth, forcing Dan White to call a timeout for his Bonackers. But out of the break, senior Derek Reed, who was Southampton’s lone consistent offensive threat on the night evident in his game-high 24 points, stole the ball and finished off the play with a layup, then senior Ryan Smith gave the Mariners their first lead since very early in the game after he made a pair of free throws to make it 52-51 with six minutes remaining in the game.

From that point on, it was all Southampton, which continued to smother East Hampton with a full-court press. Andrew Venesina’s three with 4:35 remaining, even though it only made it a four-point game, was all the Mariners needed to pull away. Venesina finished with 15 points.

“I thought our guys played well. We obviously struggled late,” White said of his team. “Having Jack Dickinson in foul trouble the whole game really hurt us. Cash Muse stepped in, he had a career-high 16 points, did a good job on the boards. Obviously, their ball pressure really bothered us late. We couldn’t get into a rhythm after that.”

East Hampton junior Finn Byrnes, who scored seven points and had numerous rebounds, said it was tough trying to stop Napier down low.

“They started kicking it inside and we weren’t able to shut it down as much. LeBron kept taking it inside, so we were having trouble with that,” he explained. “We tried shutting it down, they would get open shots. We kind of got heated up under the pressure, so we couldn’t get much going.”

Lamison said the game plan was to go to Napier late so he could open things up for the team’s shooters. Napier said his 14 points, which came mostly in the second half, were a season-low for him and he took personal responsibility for the team’s slow start.

“First half, we started out very flat, ain’t gonna lie. That begins with me as a leader. I have to start out way stronger. When I start out stronger, we always get out ahead and we stay ahead,” he explained. “Halftime coach talked to us, great talk, it started with defense. Our defense was there and then from there we got ahead.

“I feel like our team, we forget how easy it is for me to get to the basket, so as soon as we see the success coming, we just keep rolling from here,” Napier added. “I know I can do better than that and I feel like 25 [points] every night. As long as I get the ball in the middle, it’s there every night.”

Lamison was quick to give credit for the team’s defensive turnaround in the second half to senior Seven Smith, who came off the bench to provide it.

“He came in and gave us all of the energy, defensive energy, that we needed,” he said. “Sometimes all it takes is one person, and it becomes contagious defensively. He did that for us. That was a big, big lift for us to find somebody with that defensive spark.

“We kept trading baskets,” Lamison continued. “When you’re down double digits, trading brackets doesn’t work well for you. But he came in and set the groundwork for us defensively. We kind of just worked off of him.”

In addition to Muse scoring a career high for East Hampton, sophomore Liam Fowkes scored a team-high 17 points. White said his young players are going to have to continue to step it up as the season wears on.

“All of my kids have gotten better since Luke went down, that’s one kind of silver lining,” he said. “I love this team, they’re fun, they’re respectful and they work hard. I wish we could have beat Southampton, but maybe someday.”

Byrnes said it was nice giving Southampton a little scare.

“I think definitely coming into this game people didn’t think that was going to happen,” he said. “I still think we should have won that, but I think next time, or if we had this again and we came more prepared, like if this was a league game, we would definitely have them. Hope to do this again next year.”

Lamison gave credit to East Hampton for really pushing his team, but he also said his team didn’t help itself missing as many free throws as it did. He didn’t have exact numbers directly following the game, but it was somewhere around 18 missed free throws in the game.

“You’re not going to be able to win games against teams that are a little bit better than that; in the end, you’re going to lose,” he said. “The layups that we missed … it was an atrocity of a first half. Anything that went wrong did. But at the end of the day, it’s going to show up in the win column. It’s a ‘W,’ so we’ll take it.”