Tonight, the boys’ basketball team earned a fifth consecutive Suffolk County Championship in a 49-35 upset win over #1-seeded Greenport. Only three other teams in the history of Suffolk County have won five straight titles. Here is the recap of the game from Bob Herzog of Newsday.
Vaughn Spurs ‘D’ to ‘C’ Title
The drive for five began with a shift in gears.
The Stony Brook School had lost twice to Greenport and been scorched both times by freshman phenom Ahkeem Anderson, who scored 18 points in a 27-point victory on Jan. 11 and netted 24 in a five-point win on Jan. 27.
“He’s the engine that makes them go,” Stony Brook coach Mike Hickey said. So he took his best defensive player, 5-9 junior guard Emil Vaughn, out of the garage, and assigned him to guard Anderson.
“He’s not normally a starter but I challenged him to go wherever he went, for 94 feet,” Hickey said. “Emil definitely did the job.”
Vaughn’s denial defense limited Anderson, who averaged nearly 20 points, to just nine, two in the first half, and Mac Bohuny scored 19 points with 12 rebounds to lead Stony Brook to its fifth consecutive Suffolk Class C Championship with a 49-35 victory over Greenport Sunday before a lively crowd at Suffolk CCC-Selden.
Stony Brook (13-9) advances to Tuesday’s Suffolk Class C/D game against Bridgeport at 5:00pm. at Suffolk CCC-Brentwood in the small-school bracket of the county tournament. The Bears also advance to the state Class C regional semifinals against Nassau automatic qualifier East Rockaway on March 7 at 5:00pm at SUNY-Old Westbury.
“Greatness becomes something we expect,” Bohuny said. “We practice every day like it’s a playoff game.”
Greatness becomes something we expect.
Mac Bohuny
The Bears were only 5-5 in league play but advanced to the finals with a 50-47 victory over Port Jefferson in Thursday’s semifinal. They stifled not only Anderson but the entire Greenport team, which had averaged 86 points in its six previous games.
“We came into this game off two losses to Greenport and we knew he [Anderson] was their top guy. We knew he got the ball at the top of the key so we denied him and forced him to the sidelines,” said Vaughn, who didn’t score but racked up plenty of points with his coach and teammates.
“Emil was our spark,” Bohuny said.
“He understood his role and answered my challenge,” Hickey said.
The Bears got an additional defensive boost from 6-6 senior forward Jyles Etienne, who made sure no other Porter took advantage of the focus on Anderson. “My role was to stay in the paint and block everything that came my way,” said Etienne, who had four of his five blocks in the first half allowing Stony Brook to take a 20-12 lead.
When the Porters rallied to within 34-27 early in the third quarter, Etienne (eight points, 13 rebounds) responded with the play of the game. He took a long lob pass from John Eshirow off a set play on the in-bounds under the Bears’ basket, and dunked over a defender while drawing a foul and adding the free throw. Stony Brook was never threatened thereafter, with 5-5 senior point guard Brandon Providence scoring the game’s last eight points, six from the foul line.
“We had a lot of losses. It was a tough road to get here,” Etienne said.
Defense paved the way.
stonybrookbears.org 