Defending champ Southampton advances to Suffolk Class A final
Southampton's Alex Franklin scores in the third quarter during a Suffolk Class A boys basketball semifinal against Miller Place on Wednesday at Longwood. Credit: Bob Sorensen
The clock struck 0:00 and top-seeded Southampton owned a 30-point victory and a pass into the Suffolk Class A boys basketball championship game. But Herm Lamison wasn’t smiling.
“Not happy at all,” the coach said outside of the Mariners’ locker room at Longwood Wednesday night following the 73-43 win over No. 4 Miller Place, their 14th in a row. “The only thing I’m happy about is that we’re advancing to the next round.”
That will unfold at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at Farmingdale State against No. 2 Mount Sinai (20-2). Southampton (21-1) will be going for a repeat in A and a fourth straight county crown overall.
“It feels amazing,” senior guard and fourth-year starter Naevon Williams said after his 24-point effort.
But this semifinal round wasn’t lopsided outside of a huge 25-3 advantage in the second quarter.
“I’m not going to make any excuses for us because I always tell my kids, ‘Don’t make excuses,’ ” Lamison said. “But we will play better and we can play better and we do better than we did tonight. We just were a little flat.”
Ryan Khezri drained a couple of threes and Miller Place was down by just a point at 12-11 through one quarter.
“I feel like the energy and effort were down in the beginning,” Williams said. “Once we picked that up, we got back into the game and shut them down.”
Williams made a three to start the second quarter and a dominant eight minutes were in progress at both ends. Williams scored 11 in the period and Tyson Reddick had nine of his 19, converting two threes and three free throws after being fouled on a three-point try.
“When we play defense, our whole game changes,” Lamison said.
Reddick’s second three gave the Mariners a 37-14 advantage to take into the locker room.
“That second quarter killed us,” Panthers coach Joe Agostino said. “They went on a run. They’re a good team, man.”
Nick Frusco scored eight of his 13 in the third for Miller Place, but Southampton took a 53-27 lead into the fourth.
The Panthers took a step forward overall this season, though, going from a 5-15 bottom line to 13-9 and a final four.
“I’m really proud of the turnaround this program has had this year, and we’re looking to continue to change the culture and build a winning program,” Agostino said. “So this is just the start for us.”
