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Westhampton vs Bridgehampton 3/5/98
CLASS BCD CHAMPIONSHIP

Westhampton 77 Bridgehampton 49

Jermain Hollman called it, "The War of the Hamptons."
It was more like a coup.
Unbeaten Westhampton unleashed its complete arsenal of weapons during a 17-2 second-quarter run and cruised to a 77-49 boys basketball win over Bridgehampton last night in the Suffolk Small Schools final at SUNY-Stony Brook. Westhampton (22-0) will play Class A champ North Babylon for the overall county title at 3 p.m. tomorrow at SUNY-Stony Brook.
"This game had extra meaning for us because a lot of our relatives and their relatives come watch for the local flavor," said Hollman, who finished with 12 points and six steals.
Westhampton's second-quarter flavor whipped its large student-body section into a frenzy, and left the Killer Bees with a bad taste in their mouths. Trailing 16-12 with 5:57 left in the quarter, Bridgehampton (17-4) turned the ball over four straight times, which got the Hurricanes' transition game rolling.
Turnover No. 1 resulted in Dale Menendez beating his man off the dribble and banking home a driving layup. Then Hollman stepped in front of Charles Furman's pass and went the length of the court for a layup. Jason Ritchie turned the third turnover into two more points on his running jumper, and then Hollman stole another pass and put back a miss by Bronson Martin to make it 24-12 with 4:07 left before halftime.
"We were so psyched," said Menendez, who made 7 of 9 shots and had 14 points. "Our crowd was pumped up and our big run got bigger because of it."
And it was a big man who helped Westhampton make the lead bigger. Dwayne Sanders, a 6-6 center, scored six straight points, capped by a thunderous dunk with 41 seconds left that helped the Hurricanes lead 37-19 at halftime.
Westhampton's raucous student section taunted the Killer Bees after Sanders' dunk. That's because Suffolk Player of the Year Maurice Manning missed a dunk late in the first quarter. Instead of a 10-10 tie, Bridgehampton trailed 12-8 after one quarter. Manning, who had to contend with a box-and-one defense, made only 5 of 14 shots and finished with 13 points.
"That was a telling tale," Bridgehampton coach Carl Johnson said. "That dunk could have propelled us. Instead, it fueled them."
Westhampton shot 16-for-28 from the floor in the first half, and then made 6 of 11 shots in the third quarter to widen its lead to 56-33. Ronnie White scored six of his 12 points in the early moments of the fourth quarter, but Bridgehampton never got the deficit under 20 points.
Hurricanes coach Rich Wrase said his team executed its game plan perfectly. He also explained why his club ran the Killer Bees out of the building after only beating this same team by five points in December. "Our league had a lot to do with that," Wrase said. "Sixteen of our 22 wins have come against playoff teams." Westhampton went 12-0 in League IV, which had five teams qualify for the playoffs.
Westhampton will look for its first overall title tomorrow and its confidence is high with good reason. "When we play our game, we're hard to beat," Menendez said. Nobody's done it yet.

Box Score
TeamFirst QTSecond QTThird QTFouth QTTotal
Westhampton1225192177
Bridgehampton811141649
Bridgehampton: Manning 5-0-13, Walker 2-0-4, Letcher 4-0-8, Coffey 1-0-2, Furman 4-0-8, White 6-0-12, Picott 1-0-2. Totals: 23-0-49.
Westhampton: Menendez 7-0-14, Hollman 4-4-12, Liggon 2-1-5, Ritchie 5-3-13, Sanders 4-9-17, Martin 3-2-9, Ford 2-3-7. Totals: 27-22-77.
Three-point goals: Bridgehampton 3
(Manning 3); Westhampton 1 (Martin).


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