Sports

Shelter Island overcomes 14-point deficit in season-opener

The Shelter Island Indians, who trailed by 14 points early in the third quarter, bounced back for a 58-54 season-opening high school boys basketball victory at Bishop McGann-Mercy Diocesan High School on Saturday.

Kyle Johnson scored five of Shelter Island’s final nine points. He finished with 12 points, as did teammate Chris Napolitano. John McEnroe added 11 points and James Read grabbed 10 rebounds.

McGann-Mercy (1-3) received 19 points and five assists from Joe Crosser. Another Monarchs player, Pat Stepnoski, recorded a double-double with 10 points and 19 rebounds. Justin Vasquez contributed 10 points.

Shelter Island took its first lead since 1-0 when McEnroe made a putback off his own miss for a 45-44 lead. McGann-Mercy regained the lead three times after that, but Shelter Island proved too resilient.

After Stepnoski sank a pair of free throws to close Shelter Island’s lead to 56-54 with 7.7 seconds left to play, Read threw a full-court inbounds pass to Matt Belt-Cappellino, whose layup with 3.9 seconds to go sealed the victory.

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