Brentwood maturing into tournament threat with OT win over Bellport in Suffolk Class AA semifinals
Brentwood's Devon Snell reacts as time runs out during the Suffolk Class AA boys basketball semifinal against Bellport on Tuesday at Longwood. Credit: Bob Sorensen
The Brentwood boys basketball team came of age Tuesday night. And now it has its sights set on a championship.
Brentwood was arguably seen as too young to be a title contender at the dawn of the season with two sophomores and two juniors in the starting lineup. And it showed early when it lost three of its first five. Then it got a few wins under its belt, the players started to believe and Brentwood finished the regular season a very dangerous looking No. 7 seed in the Suffolk Class AA Tournament.
That same storyline played out in Brentwood’s semifinal matchup against third-seeded Bellport. The Clippers had Brentwood down as much as 11 in the early going but when the Clippers let them hang around, everyone in the Longwood Gym could see the transformation happening. Brentwood grew confident, staged a big fourth-quarter comeback and never stopped fighting through overtime to earn a tremendous 63-59 victory.
Brentwood (16-7) will face Commack — a 48-43 winner over Smithtown West in Tuesday night’s second semifinal — in Saturday’s championship game at Stony Brook, seeking its 13th county crown.
“We heard we were supposed to be having a down year and that we were going to be too young to compete,” sophomore Jeremiah Webb said. “We didn’t believe it from the start and we don’t get discouraged.”
“We just started slow – like tonight – but we’re a comeback team,” junior Marquese Dennis said.
Dennis put back his own miss, drew a foul and made the free throw for a 60-57 lead with 59.6 seconds left in overtime to finally put Brentwood ahead for good, but the victory in this see-saw battle wasn’t cemented until sophomore Tyrell Davender sank one of two free throws with 1.4 seconds left.
“Unbelievably intense, especially the defense,” Brentwood coach Anthony Jimenez said. “No one reaches the semifinals without being able to dig in. People may think we’re young but this team is capable of digging in.”
Frederic Diogene had 17 points and 11 rebounds, Dennis had 15 points and 14 rebounds and Webb had 12 points for Brentwood. Superlative senior Samir Bell scored 33 for Bellport (16-6).
Bell had nine points as the Clippers opened the fourth quarter with a 13-0 run for a 43-30 lead with 5:04 left. Diogene scored eight of his points as Brentwood countered with a 13-2 run for a 48-45 lead with 58 seconds left in regulation. It led 53-49 on a Davender three-pointer with 21 seconds left, but in the final 14.5 seconds, Bellport evened it up on a pair of Bell free throws, a steal and a Jason Hunt layup with one second left to force OT.
Bellport led in the OT until Devon Snell tied it at 57 by scoring off an offensive rebound with 1:58 left.
“People say ‘young’ but the goal is to have sophomores playing like juniors, juniors playing like seniors and seniors playing out of this world by the end,” Jimenez said. “You saw tonight that we’ve really matured.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
