Yesterday evening, the boys’ basketball team improved to 5-1 in PSAA play with a cathartic 59-49 win over Portledge.

The victory not only kept them in the hunt for the regular season title but also ended a 10-game losing streak to the two-time reigning PSAA Champions. The last time the Bears beat Portledge was in the final of the Panthers’ Tip-Off Tournament in 2017, a year before SBS joined the PSAA. In the interim, the Bears came close but could not vanquish their rivals from Locust Valley. Until yesterday.

Portledge opened with two 3-pointers, bookending a Nate Small steal and layup. Those would prove to be Portledge’s only long balls of the game. Small then drove and hit a layup to pull within 4-6, but a Portledge and-1 nudged their lead out to five points in what would be their largest advantage of the game. Small answered with a 3-pointer, but a Panther layup gave the visitors an 11-7 advantage. A quick 6-0 run followed as the Bears took their first lead behind a Paul Coty spin into a baseline jumper, a Small steal and Euro-step layup, and a Coty fastbreak layup.

Portledge tied the game at 13-13 on a backdoor layup, but Dylan Kopp banked in a runner to give the Bears a lead they would not relinquish. The score ushered in a 12-4 run that would give the Bears a cushion they maintained for the majority of the next three quarters. Coty followed Kopp’s score with a Euro-step finish on a fastbreak. After a Portledge bucket pulled them within 15-17, Kopp and Coty finished a pair of layups, and Small connected on two free throws to give The Brook a 23-15 lead at the end of one. Small’s 11 points led the way for the Bears.

The Bears’ lead fluctuated in the second period from 10 points to five as the Panthers kept the game close, even as the hosts seemed to impose their will on the game. A Panther jumper carved their deficit back to 22-29 before Coty drilled a long stepback jumper and finished a tough layup through contact to give The Brook a 33-24 lead. A Portledge free throw left them trailing by eight after an evenly-matched quarter.

In the third period, the Bears saw their lead grow to as many as 13 points and their margin rise above double-digits on four different occasions, but turnovers and defensive fouls allowed the visitors to hang around. The Bears kept battling but couldn’t string enough positive plays together to get a comfortable distance from their rivals. A 3-point play from Coty, courtesy of a great feed from Small, put the Bears up 12. After two Portledge free throws, Kopp hit a floater to put the Bears back up a dozen, but an and-1 and a floater carved Portledge’s deficit back to seven at 39-46. A Michael Xiang free throw once again gave the Bears an eight-point margin at the end of the frame.

The Bears began the fourth quarter with an unhealthy amount of foul trouble and a precarious lead that the Panthers trimmed back to six early on, but multiple Bears stepped up as the time grew short. Jeremiah Coty picked off a Portledge in-bounds pass and finished the layup to push the lead back to eight. Kopp followed with a fastbreak layup for a 51-41 lead. After a Panther dunk clipped the lead back to single-digits, Jeremiah Coty cashed a huge 3-pointer to put The Brook back up 11 midway through the quarter. Portledge would get no closer than eight points the rest of the way. Paul Coty’s two free throws with 45 seconds left were the final death knell for the Panthers in the Bears’ 59-49 win.

Paul Coty led the way for the Bears with 21 points. Kopp (16), Small (11), Jeremiah Coty (7), Torres (2), and Xiang (1) bolstered the Bear attack. Despite missing four players who would have seen significant minutes yesterday, the shorthanded Blue & White pulled out a key league win.

The Brook is back on the court Friday night at St. John the Baptist.

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