Smith's Third Quarter Outburst Leads to Lopsided Victory for Pierson in C/D Qualifier

After helping his team to a 76-53 victory over crosstown rival Bridgehampton in the C/D Qualifier of the Section XI Tournament on February 21, Pierson junior Aven Smith exulted a “finally,” following the game.

Smith regularly finds himself on the Whalers’ scoresheet most games, he’s even led the team in scoring on some nights, but something was different about his game during the third quarter of last week’s contest at Southampton High School. Not only was his three-point shot on, but he was more aggressive in going to the basket and grabbing rebounds. While he didn’t lead the team in scoring — his classmate Luke Seltzer led all scorers with 24 points — Smith’s 13 points in the third quarter helped the Whalers pull away from a Killer Bees team that had given them fits through the first half. Smith finished with 22 points and made four three-pointers total.

Pierson advanced in the county tournament to the B/C/D Qualifier against ‘B’ county champion Southampton this past Saturday at East Hampton High School where it lost, 69-52. (See separate story.)

“Finally,” Smith said. “Like, it’s been a minute, so it feels good,” to help contribute to the team’s win, he said.

“During halftime when we were talking, we did not have any energy,” Smith added. “And Bridgehampton, they bring a ton of energy. So after halftime, coach got us ready. We all came out with energy, which gave us momentum, which created space for me, and that’s what got me all those threes.”

Pierson came into the game with a clear height advantage over Bridgehampton, but just as they showed in the one game the two teams played during the regular season, that didn’t seem to matter for the Bees. They jumped out to a considerable lead in the first quarter, and although Seltzer’s eight points in the frame, which included a fast break dunk just before the end of the quarter, cut into that lead, the Bees still led, 13-12.

Bridgehampton freshman Sae’vion Ward (18 points) opened the second quarter with a three that increased that lead, but from that point, Pierson started to clamp down on defense a little bit and hit its shots, leading to an 8-0 run. Ward and fellow freshman Jai Feaster (team-leading 19 points) kept Bridgehampton in the game with some sharp shooting of their own, but a basket by junior Charlie McLean (17 points) put Pierson out in front, 29-27, at halftime.

Smith got to work almost immediately in the third with a three, and after that it was very much all Pierson.

“Very proud of our guys,” Bridgehampton head coach Ron White said after the game. “We were definitely undersized. We shoot too many jump shots. We have to get to the rim, and we need to finish at the rim, but I’m proud of my guys for fighting. Sag Harbor is a strong team, a big team. We fought hard, we hung tight for as long as we could, but their size got to us.”

It didn’t help that the Bees lost one of their senior starters, Kris Vinski, to what could be a season-ending injury. He dislocated his right shoulder diving for a ball in practice on February 17 and the initial timetable is he’ll miss the next four to six weeks, which would almost certainly put him in jeopardy of missing the Bees’ Regional Semifinal to be played March 7 at S.S. Seward Institute in Florida, New York, at 7 p.m.

“Unfortunately, he landed on it wrong. Those things happen,” White said. “We’ll see what happens. All depends what the prognosis is.”

Pierson head coach Will Fujita said it was nice to finally see Smith take over a game. He knew he had it in him.

“He plays pretty much every minute of every game, and we’ve kind of been pressing him to be a little more aggressive,” he said. “If he’s got the shot from outside, if he’s crashing the glass well, if he’s doing that, it opens up a lot of opportunities for other guys.”

Fujita has been appreciative of all the hard work his players have put in, particularly last week during a week-long vacation from school.

“I’m just super thrilled with the way we’ve been working at practice,” Fujita added. “We’ve been separating these guys on different teams at practice, so Aven is going against Luke a lot, Kyle [Seltzer] and Charlie go against each other a lot, Dom [Mancino] and Keanu [King]. Our bench is our heart. Every guy that’s showing up, especially during a February break, that means the world. And to have guys like Aidan Schmitz and Fritz [Desir] and Henry Butler, Lance Schroeder, and bringing up Ryan Ziemer, I think that right now we’re making good strides forward.”