Boys Basketball: SWR’s effort alone isn’t enough against Southampton
Shoreham-Wading River brought the energy, the fire and the intensity. But Southampton just brought too much.
Southampton, winner of the last three Long Island Class B boys basketball championships, had only seven players available for its Suffolk County League VI game in Shoreham on Saturday. That was enough.
The fast, high-flying Mariners held the lead since the game was about two minutes old and, despite Shoreham’s efforts, walked away 58-45 winners.
Herm Lamison, Southampton’s coach for 26 years, said Shoreham deserved to win. Shoreham coach Kevin Culhane called it his team’s best league performance this season.
Southampton (9-1, 5-1) showed it has quality, if not much in the way of quantity (only 10 players are on the roster). Among them are Timmy Alejo (15 points, 14 rebounds, three assists, three steals) and Micah Snowden (15 points, eight rebounds, three blocks, two assists, one steal). Elijah Wingfield chipped in 12 points.
Dean Stalzer had a double-double for Shoreham (6-6, 1-5) with 10 points and 12 rebounds. The Wildcats, losers of six straight, received 13 points from Jalen Wright and 11 from Ken DeGolyer, who also came down with nine rebounds.
Southampton blocked eight shots and made Shoreham work hard for its points. Perhaps the Wildcats’ major shortcoming was finishing near the basket. They shot 27.3 percent from the field while the Mariners made 45.5 percent of their field-goal attempts.
Shoreham controlled the ball well, but was beaten on the boards, 38-27, in rebounding.
Southampton led by two points after one quarter, seven after two and nine after three.
The unquestioned highlight of the game was a snazzy maneuver by Wingfield. The junior was racing the ball up the floor when he dribbled behind his back to avoid a defender and then, in the same fluid motion, whipped a pass down low to Snowden for a layup 1:28 into the fourth quarter.
Photo caption: Dean Stalzer, who put up 10 points and 12 rebounds for Shoreham-Wading River, gets off a shot despite pressure from Southampton’s Micah Snowden. (Credit: Robert O’Rourk)
