Up And Down Start to Season for Pierson Boys Basketball

Through its first three games of the season, it’s clear the Pierson boys basketball team is trying to find its identity after graduating eight players from last year’s team, which reached the New York State Class C semifinals.

Coming off a 77-44 nonleague loss at Class AA/League I Northport on November 29, the Whalers rebounded nicely with a 58-44 victory at Port Jefferson in their League V opener on December 7, but then lost another nonleague game, 49-37, to Shoreham-Wading River in their home opener on Saturday.

“I think this whole year is going to be about identifying when progress is being made and build on that,” Pierson head coach Will Fujita said on Monday morning. “We have a very young group. As long as we look for those opportunities, I think there is a lot of room for growth.”

Saturday’s game may have actually been a little bit of a microcosm of how the season has gone thus far for Pierson, which started the game in a 14-0 deficit and trailed, 20-5, after the first quarter before turning things around in the second quarter. A nifty inbounds play by Dominick Mancino to Charlie McLean cut the Whalers’ deficit to single digits at 22-13, with 4:30 remaining in the first half. Then the pair hooked up again in transition with Mancino finding McLean for the quick layup. Not soon later, Aven Smith’s three-pointer with 1:30 remaining made it a three-point game, 24-21, but that was as close as the Whalers would get to the lead. The Wildcats went on a quick 5-0 run to close out the first half and they were able to keep Pierson at bay for the most part in the second half.

“With Kevin Culhane as the head coach, I was definitely expecting them to be a well-coached and physical team, and that’s kind of exactly what they presented to us in the beginning of the game,” Fujita said. “We also couldn’t get the lid off the rim in the first quarter. We couldn’t get the ball in the hoop.

“We need to identify when we’re not in rhythm,” he added. “I think their game plan was to give us a lot of opportunities from the perimeter. I think we got guys open shots early they just couldn’t really do it in rhythm and that’s really what we were trying to do early on, on the offensive side of the ball. We have to try and improve on that.”

Kyle Seltzer led the Whalers with 13 points, while McLean finished with eight, Luke Seltzer finished with seven and Mancino with 6. Shoreham’s Anthony Osness led all scorers with 16 points.

Pierson does not appear to have the high-output scorers like it did last season with Wilson Bennett and Cecil Munshin, but it may make up for that with an even output across the board. Against Port Jeff, Mancino (11), McLean (10), and Luke Seltzer (10), all reached double digits, while Kyle Seltzer and Smith each scored nine points and Logan Hartstein had six and Lance Schroeder had three.

“We were effective in executing our game plan early,” Fujita said of his team’s victory over Port Jeff. “We tried to speed up the tempo of the game. When things weren’t there, we were able to pull out, reset and run our offense.

“Three games in, I’m happy with the level of effort that I’m getting, and I think the more that we continue to play together, things will break our way,” he added. “We’re doing a good job. Everyone’s paying attention to detail early, which is important.”

After a big game against rival Southold on Tuesday, the Whalers are scheduled to play at Center Moriches this Friday night at 6:15 p.m., before returning home this Monday, December 19, to face Babylon at 6:15 p.m.