Friends become rivals

For years they practiced together, feeding off each other's talents to make each other better. They made up the core of last year's state championship girls lacrosse team at Shoreham-Wading River, a triumphant send-off before beginning their college careers.

Kristen Anderson (left), the all-time goal leader in Shoreham history, settled in at Rutgers University in Jersey. Brittany Davis (right), the third all-time goal leader, traveled south to the University of Delaware.

Off the field they were close friends, so you can only imagine what it must have been like Thursday afternoon, when the two faced each other as college rivals.

Davis' Blue Hens met Anderson's Scarlet Knights in Delaware in what was the first game in Delaware's season. Rutgers already had one game in the books, a loss against defending national champion Northwestern.

The Blue Hens emerged victorious 7-6, giving Davis the early bragging rights in their college careers. But it wasn't all bad for Anderson, who started and played all 60 minutes. She had one ground ball while playing attack. Davis didn't see any action in her first game. Emily Schaknowski, though, did. Schaknowski (right), an '06 Shoreham graduate, scored one goal with 7:46 left in the first to give the Blue Hens a 3-2 lead.

Schaknowski of course is the woman in between Anderson and Davis in the Shoreham record books. She owns 205 career goals behind Anderson's 223. Schaknowski is the all-time points leader with 374. Anderson is second with 305 and Davis is third with 203.

Anderson, still wearing No. 29, may not have scored Thursday, but she netted a goal in her first game against Northwestern. Davis, now wearing No. 10 (Northport grad Alexis Curcio, a junior, is wearing 16), will have to wait at least one more game for her chance.

Ray named to Tewaarton Award 'Watch List'

Garden City, N.Y. - Adelphi University junior Rachel Ray (Rocky Point, N.Y.) was one of 44 women named to the 2008 Tewaarton Award "Watch list". The players on this list were nominated by coaches across all three divisions and are early season hopefuls for the 2008 Tewaaraton Trophy.

"This is a prestigious honor for Rachel," head coach Joe Spallina said. "I have had the opportunity of coaching her for the last five years and she is playing at a level she`s never played before. Rachel should have a great season."

Ray, who was recently named the ECC Preseason Player of the Year, is one of only five Division II players on the list. She is joined by Mallory Poole (C.W. Post), Breanna Haggerty (Merchyhurst), Michele Kelly (Stonehill) and Stephanie Kienle (West Chester)

Ray, a first-team All-American in 2007, led the Panthers last season with 40 goals and 33 assists for 73 points and added 45 groundballs. She is just the second women from Adelphi to be added to the "watch list". The first was four-time All-American Katherine Hock, who was selected to the list in 2005.

The Panthers kick off the 2008 season on Saturday, March 8, at Southern New Hampshire.

Rocky Point grad leads UMass

Lyons Named Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week
• Jackie Lyons was named the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week after helping the Minutewomen to a 1-1 record in their opening week of play. Lyons netted a pair of goals in the 9-5 win over Holy Cross and led the team for the week in groundballs and caused turnovers.
• Lyons scored two goals on three shots for the week and collected four groundballs and caused five turnovers in her first two collegiate games.
• A native of Rocky Point, N.Y., Lyons was a standout player at Rocky Point High School where she was a three-time All-American selection.

Miller Place grad named Rookie of the Week

Cambridge, Mass. – UAlbany second baseman Kyle Crean has been honored as the America East Conference’s Rookie of the Week, as announced by the conference office on Monday afternoon.

Crean, a freshman from Miller Place, N.Y., hit .200 in the opening three games of the season for the Great Danes at the Clearwater Invitational in Clearwater, Fla. In his collegiate debut against Iowa, Crean registered a hit and scored a run in two at-bats. In UAlbany’s third game of the invitational, Crean recorded a run-scoring single, walked once and scored two runs in the Great Danes’ 12-4 win over Notre Dame.

UAlbany (1-2) returns to the diamond on Friday, Feb. 29 in Spartanburg, S.C. against Wofford at 4:00 p.m.

No surprise here...

Playoff games are postponed today, which is probably a good thing. Who the heck wants to drive out to Brentwood or Elwood in this?? Not I.

Games are tentatively scheduled for noon Saturday. It looks like snow might continue tomorrow, so who knows, the games could be still be pushed back to Sunday.

The John Glenn girls basketball team will have gone 11 days without a game if tip-off is tomorrow. That could work to Shoreham's advantage. If the Wildcats can come out hot, get ahead early and keep up their defensive pressure, they could come out with a win. John Glenn was definitely the better team in the regular season, but not so much that it would be impossible for Shoreham to win.

As for the Lions of Longwood, I'm not sure a day of snow will do much to slow down forward JJ Moore of Brentwood. The Lions are going to need to play real big down low in order to win. Without Marcus Hunter, a 6-5 forward, the Lions lack any real post presence outside of Jimmy Knudsen. We've seen the Lions can still score without Hunter, but the question is, can they get enough defensive stops when they matter most? And can they keep Moore off the glass?

SWR cheerleaders

I posted a link to the Longwood step squad a few weeks ago, so in the spirit of today's SWR girls basketball playoff game, here's a link to the SWR cheerleaders during a recent routine.

Enjoy!

List of place-winners

1st Place:

Steven Keith, 112, SWR

Ray Powers, 145, Mt. Sinai

Zach Buonaiuto, 189, Miller Place

2nd Place:

Matt Ross, 96, Rocky Point

TJ Neidhart, 145, SWR

Ernest James, 215, Longwood

3rd Place:

Brandon Escobar, 112, RP

Anthony Volpe, 112, RP

Will Fechter, 140, Longwood

Carl Korpi, 215, Miller Place

4th Place:

Victor Goady, 125, Longwood

Alex Martocello, 160, Miller Place

Will Parks, 171, Longwood

5th Place:

Nicky Hall, 103, Longwood

Billy Coggins, 145, Rocky Point

6th Place:

Jon Hoeg, 119, Mt. Sinai

Team Scoring:

10th: Mt. Sinai

9th: Amityville

8th: Copiague

7th: West Islip

6th: Rocky Point

5th: Longwood

4th: John Glenn

3rd: Huntington

2nd: Hauppauge

1st: Brentwood

Ross, James fall in finals

Rocky Point's Matt Ross and Longwood's Ernest James both fell in their county finals. Ross lost to Damon McQueen of Huntington, 4-3. James lost at 215 to Jahsua Marsh of Brentwood, 3-2.

Buonaiuto first MP champ since '87

Zach Buonaiuto won a 4-0 189 final against Ward Melville's Conor Pryor, the top seed in the bracket, to become Miller Place's first county champion since Rob Casazza in '87.

Powers wins title at 145, defeating SWR's Neidhart

Mount Sinai senior Ray Powers scored on a reversal with five seconds left for a 5-3 win in the 145-pound final against SWR's TJ Neidhart. He becomes the first Division I county champion for Mount Sinai since its switch back from Division II.

SWR's Keith wins MOW

By Joe Werkmeister
STONY BROOK—The 112-pound winners all took their respective places on the podium, cameras flashing and crowd cheering. Six wrestlers, all of whom could easily be considered among the best in the county, stood side-by-side.

“Look at that weight class!” yelled one observer.

The top of the podium could only fit one. And for the second year in a row, that honor went to Shoreham-Wading River’s Steven Keith, a state champion at 96 pounds last year who persevered through what some have called the toughest weight class in the tournament’s history.

Keith defeated Islip’s Jake Benedetto 9-4 at Stony Brook University Saturday night to become a two-time county champion. He improved to 39-1 on the season — his only loss coming against Benedetto.

“It’s unbelievable to come out on top in this tournament,” said Keith, who was voted Most Outstanding Wrestler. “I really had to put in all that I could in every single match and wrestle my hardest.”

Before Keith could think about Benedetto, he needed to overcome Rocky Point’s Brandon Escobar, a wrestler whom he had never beaten. Two years ago Escobar beat him 12-0 in the 96-pound third-place match. Last year they wrestled at different weights, but when they met in a dual meet at 103, Escobar won again.

When Keith’s 7-5 semifinal win against Escobar ended, he raised his hands high and screamed, a rare display of emotion for the quiet wrestler.

“Even the state finals I’m not usually that excited, but after losing four or five times in a row to him, to get on top of him, that was big,” Keith said. “I was real psyched.”

Rocky Point coach Darren Goldstein has called Escobar one of the strongest wrestlers pound-for-pound that he’s seen and for Keith, closing that gap helped make the difference.

“I just pushed myself every single day to catch up to him,” he said. “He was my reach target and I just had to take it a little bit at a time.”

Benedetto fell to 37-3 on the year, with two losses against Keith, who beat him after their first match during the season.
Keith, who normally doesn’t take a defensive approach to his match, waited for Benedetto to take a shot. Late in the first period Keith capitalized on Benedetto’s shot at the legs, quickly swinging him around for a takedown. He held Benedetto down for three more and took a 5-0 lead after one.

“It was a real good shot by him that started it,” Keith said. “He got in deep and I was able to defend it off. I’ve been working hard with my defense lately. He went to try and roll with my leg and I stuck and put him on his back.”
Keith took an 8-3 lead into the third period. Benedetto got one a stall and another to make it 8-4 on a stall by Keith. An escape point by Keith made for the final margin.

Live from Stony Brook University: Part deuce

OK, back here at Stony Brook where the consolations just finished and the gym is being cleared out and prepared for tonight's finals which are slated for 6:15 p.m. (Parade of champions at 6).

As noted before, we'll have finalists at 96, 112, 145, 189 and 215.

We had several wrestlers win in the consolation rounds, beginning with Rocky Point's Brandon Escobar at 112. After losing a tough match against Steven Keith, Escobar rebounded to take third with an 8-1 win.

Longwood seventh grader Nicky Hall accomplished the goal his coaches set for him by placing fifth. He won 4-2 against Westhampton's Pete DeTore to claim the prize. It's not every often seventh-graders are placing in the county, especially at 103. You see a lot of the best kids win at 96, usually starting in eighth grade. But to win at 103 in seventh, that's another world. Assuming Hall stays at the same weight next year, I'd put him in the running to win the county next year. That first trip to the county tournament is always rough for wrestlers. As much as you can think you're prepared, walking into an arena with a couple thousand people and it's something else. Talking to people around Suffolk wrestling, everyone is in agreement that Hall will end up as one of the greats when his career is complete, even better than his father (!) who was an All-American.

Consider Corey Jantzen didn't place at the counties when he was in seventh grade. And when he was in eighth grade he took fourth at 96.

On to some other matches: Longwood's Victory Goady let a 5-0 lead slip away in the third-place 125 final. He lost to Nick Terdick, 8-6, the same wrestler who beat him in the quarterfinals. It appeared Goady would enact small revenge on Terdick when he scored an early escape in the third for a 5-0 lead. Terdick came back with two and Goady added another to make it 6-2. The last minute was all Terdick, who kept the pressure on a tiring Goady.

After Terdick took the 8-6 lead Goady had one chance on a restart with 14 seconds left. Goady started on bottom, but couldn't come away with anything. 

Rocky Point's Anthony Volpe won a 3-1 overtime win for third place at 135. He beat Islip's John LaMonica in what was a rather uneventful match until the overtime. Both wrestlers scored on escapes leading to the overtime. Volpe ended it with a takedown with 28 seconds left in OT.

Longwood's Will Fechter won 8-4 at 140 for third place. He beat Eric Smith of Patchogue-Medford, 8-4. Nearly all the scoring came in the final period. Fechter trailed 1-0 after two before turning it on in the third. Smith trailed 3-2 after scoring on an escape with 1:19 left. Fechter rallied five straight points to close out the match.

Longwood's Will Parks lost his 171 third-place match, 2-0, to Marvin Titus-Casseus of West Babylon.

Miller Place's Alex Martocello (160) was pinned in his third-place match in 5:04 by Shafa Nadir of Hills West.

MP's Carl Korpi (215) bounced back to take third with a 9-7 win against Alex Fernan of West Islip.

Mount Sinai's Jon Hoeg finished sixth at 119 after losing to Tyler Sinisgalli of John Glenn.

Rocky Point's Billy Coggins took fifth after beating James Denicola in the 145 consolation. He won in 5:40 after injury default.

Live from Stony Brook University

Well sort of...I actually just took a break to get some food, so I'm not technically in the arena right now, but I was for all the semi-final action in the county wrestling tournament.

A lot of exciting action, so if you missed it, hurry up and make plans to be in the arena at 5:30 when the doors open for the finals.

Each team in our coverage area is represented in the finals. Shoreham-Wading River has two wrestlers (Steven Keith & TJ Neidhart) the rest have one. For Mount Sinai it's Ray Powers. Longwood it's Ernest James. Miller Place it's Zach Buoniauto and Rocky Point it's Matt Ross.

Wrestle-backs are underway right now (1 p.m.) and the third-place matches will take place starting at 2 p.m. More will come after that.

But first, a look back at the semi-final match-ups.

The marquee match-up, the one a coach told me was the reason everyone was here (the stands are near capacity), was Keith for Rocky Point's Brandon Escobar at 112. Keith is a returning state champ at 96 and Esco is a third-place finisher at 103 in the state last year. Escobar had gotten the better of Keith historically, but on this morning it was Keith who emerged a 7-5 victor.

Keith looked in control for most of the first two periods before things got dicey in the third, much the same as his league final against Glenn Donatelli of Bayport. Keith led 4-0 after the first period, spending most of the time riding on top of Escobar. Escobar had always had an advantage over Keith with his strength, but it wasn't as much of a factor in this match. Keith is the quicker wrestler and has really improved his strength to make the jump from 96 to 112.

In the second period Keith got back on top before Escobar managed an escape point with 1:30 left. Keith got back two more to go ahead 6-1 and looked in control, but Escobar wasn't done yet. In the third he cut it to 6-3 and started to gain control over Keith. With 50 seconds left Keith started on bottom on a restart and Escobar went back to work. Keith got a stalling call against him before a crazy final 30 seconds. Escobar had Keith down when the referee blew the whistle, which infuriated Escobar and coach Darren Goldstein. Not sure exactly what the call was, but Escobar thought he could keep working and was close to points.

It didn't work out, and Keith survived 7-5.

When the match ended Keith help his hands and yelled in excitement, a lot more emotion than we're used to seeing after a victory. More so I think than when he won the county last year.

Keith will face Islip's Jake Benedetto in the finals, the only wrestler who's beaten him this season. Keith did beat once also, so this is the rubber-match.

At 96 pounds Matt Ross cruised against Westhampton's Conner Bass, 12-0, to reach the finals against Damon McQueen, who beat top-seeded Sean McCabe. Ross has picked up a tech. fall victory 15-0, a 12-0 quarterfinal win and now the 12-0 semifinal win. I'd imagine the final will be a little closer.

At 135 Rocky Point's Anthony Volpe dropped a 5-2 semifinal decision to top-seeded Andy Rodriguez of Central Islip.

At 145 Neidhart beat James Denicola of Harborfields, 5-1, to advance to the finals against Powers of Mount Sinai. Powers pinned Shawn Mazzarone of Sayville in 5:43. There haven't been many pins in the semi's but he got one of them.

At 160 Alex Martocello lost 6-5 to Michael Hernandez of Brentwood.

Buonaiuto won at 189 against David Manzueta, 3-1. His win came as Carl Korpi was wrestling his 215 match. The excitement of Buonaiuto's win was quickly softened when Korpi lost his first match of the season against James of Longwood, 5-4. Korpi was undefeated heading into the match and his last loss was in the county finals last year. It was a disappointing finish to one of the best wrestling careers in Miller Place history. There still remains a small chance Korpi could earn an at-large bid to the state tournament, but with a third-place finish at best, it would seem unlikely. He didn't get a bid last year when he finished second with one loss.

Brackets posted in hoops

Here are the first-round match-ups in boys and girls hoops:

Boys:

Monday, Feb. 18

Miller Place (No. 4) vs. Islip (No. 5)

Tuesday, Feb. 19

Class AA:

Longwood (No. 5) vs. Riverhead (No. 12), 6 p.m.

Girls:

Tuesday, Feb. 19

Class A:

SWR (No. 4) vs. Comsewogue (No. 5), 6 p.m.

Complete brackets are posted on Sectionxi.org.

Long night at track meet

Well the state qual's finally happened Thursday night and almost went into Friday morning. While very long, it was still a nice showing by local athletes. Three boys qualified and eight girls.

Here's the list:

Barry Franklin, Longwood: 3,200 (3rd place)

Chris Searles, Longwood: Shot Put (2nd place)

Bobby Andrews, SWR: 1,600 (3rd place)

Lauren McGrath, SWR: High Jump (2nd place)

Ashley Dell'Aira, SWR: Triple Jump (1st place)

Tori Hill, SWR: Pole Vault (2nd place)

Ashley Clasen, SWR: Shot Put (3rd place)

Brooke Johnson, SWR: 1,500 (3rd place) -Relay

Janet Mellor, Mt. Sinai: 300 (1st place)

Janie Turek, Mt. Sinai: 1,000 (2nd place)

Jennifer Johnston, Longwood: 600 (3rd place)

The way qualifying works, the top two finishers earn bids. Third-place finishers go if they meet the qualifying standard. The trick there is you don't necessarily have to meet the standard that night. As long as an athlete meets the mark at a sanctioned event after the start of January, that counts. For example, McGrath had jumped 5-04 earlier in the year, which beat the standard of 5-03. So had she finished third with a jump of 5-02, she still would have made it. It didn't matter anyway because she finished second. 

It's a good deal because it's harder for the athletes to perform their best at Suffolk West. Times on the track especially will always be less than the Armory for example where the track is better and athletes can wear spikes.

The meet had a few mishaps, most notably in the girls 4 x 800 relay. Every team ran one lap short. Not sure how that's possible, but the officials screwed up and were bringing the next girl out before the runner had completed the four laps. So Ward Melville won with a time of 8:57.12. Wow!

The meet didn't end until a few minutes before midnight, which is a major problem. There's no reason a high school sporting event, on a school night, should end that late. The meet didn't start until 7 p.m., which was an hour later than it was originally scheduled for on Tuesday. Bad weather forced the meet to be postponed, so there were few options for rescheduling it. It couldn't start until 7 because the Suffolk basketball team had practice before it. If the meet was at a later date, kids would potentially miss it because schools are on break and kids have vacations scheduled.

Anyhow, Section XI needed to find a way to work with Suffolk West to make the field house available at an earlier hour. Start the thing at 3 p.m., let the kids out of school early and tell the basketball team to find another court to practice on. I'm sure there are plenty of basketball courts in the world.

These high school kids are forced to get up around 6-6:30 a.m. to go to school and then for some have to wait around until 11 p.m. to compete in their event. How fresh can a kid be that late? And how the heck can they be expected to get up at 6-6:30 a.m. again the next morning to go to school again?

I only watched the meet and I couldn't get up until 10 this morning...

State Qual's Postponed

There's 1/100th of an inch of snow on the ground, so the track state qualifier is postponed until Thursday, 7 p.m. Too bad for those looking to celebrate Valentine's Day.

At least they didn't schedule it the same day as the county wrestling tournament...

Miller Place grad preseason All-MAAC

Press Release from Canisius Athletics:

The Canisius College baseball team was picked to finish first by the league’s coaches in the annual preseason poll released by the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference today. It’s the highest preseason projection for the baseball program since joining the MAAC for the 1990 season.

Three Golden Griffins earned preseason All-MAAC honors, the most of any school in the league. Junior Kevin Mahoney (Miller Place, N.Y.) and Kevin Reimer (Steinbach, Manitoba) along with sophomore Ian Choy (Mississauga, Ont.) were chosen by the league’s coaches to the 12-man squad.

Mahoney earned second-team All-MAAC honors after his sophomore season when he led the Griffs with six home runs, four triples, 13 doubles and 42 runs scored. The team’s third baseman had 34 RBIs, a .482 slugging percentage and .388 on-base percentage while posting 14 multiple-hit games and 10 multiple-RBI games. Mahoney played in 53 games at third base, making 12 errors.

Choy, a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American and second-team All-Freshman selection by Ping! Baseball, was the first Rookie of the Year in program history and earned first-team All-MAAC honors. The team’s left fielder tied for the team lead and ranked fifth with a .358 batting average while also totaling 12 doubles and 26 RBIs. Choy had 18 multiple-hit games, which included eight games with three-plus hits, while striking out just 17 times in 173 at-bats and posting a .437 on-base percentage.

Reimer tied with Choy for the team lead in batting average at .358. The team’s catcher had 11 doubles, four home runs, 10 multiple-RBI games, 17 multiple-hit games, which included five games of three hits or more, while leading the team with a .503 slugging percentage and .460 on-base percentage. Reimer stole five bases and scored 40 runs while committing two errors behind the plate.

In the coaches’ poll, Canisius received 71 points from the league’s nine coaches while Manhattan was second with 67 points and Marist third with 66. Fairfield and Siena tied for fourth with 50 points. Rider (36), Saint Peter’s (34), Iona (19) and Niagara (12) rounded out the poll.

The Griffs qualified for their second MAAC Tournament in program history last season, compiling a 13-12 conference record. Canisius closed out the MAAC schedule with 11 wins in the final 15 games, including nine straight wins at the Demske Sports Complex.

Canisius opens the 2008 schedule Friday, Feb. 22, when the Griffs play Long Island in Gastonia, N.C.

Before Canisius:
Lettered three seasons at Miller Place High School… Named all-state, All-Long Island, all-county and league MVP in 2005 after hitting .479 with 11 homers, 11 doubles and two triples… Team was the Section XI Class A Champs… Went 4-for-4 in Vitra’s Long Island inaugural all-star game… Garnered all-county honors as a junior and competed on the Long Island team at the Empire State Games; hit .580 with eight homers… Hit .430 as a sophomore and was selected first-team all-league… Three-sport athlete, lettering in football, basketball and baseball… Also played for the Smithtown Cardinals and Long Island Titans… Team was the 2003 National Pony Invitational Eastern Region Finalists… Named an FABL Long Island All-Star.

For your halftime entertainment...

The Longwood Step Squad!

I saw Longwood beat Lindenhurst Tuesday in what was an awesome game to watch. The Lions control their own destiny to win a League I title, needing to win their final three games to clinch it. But the basketball games are more than 3-pointers and crossovers.

The halftime entertainment at Longwood is as good as you'll see at a high school basketball game around here. You get cheerleaders, the Lionettes and of course, the Step Squad. Check out this video of a recent routine. It appears to be from a girls game.

Enjoy!

SWR boys nab second

The Wildcats knew Kyle Merber and Hills West would be the biggest obstacle in winning a small school county championship. They were.

Merber led Hills West to 70 points and a win in the county championship, while the Wildcats took second with 58. Junior Bobby Andrews (pictured right) was third in the 3,200 (9 minutes, 50.68 seconds), third in the 1,600 (4:37.59) and ran on the first-place 4 x 800 team.

The strength for the Wildcats has been their distance runners, but unfortunately Hills West excelled in the same area. Not many teams can contend with Shoreham's distance crew, but with Merber Hills West managed to strip away key points where the Wildcats rely on scoring.

Still, though, a real nice job for the Wildcats to finish ahead of Bellport (54 points), a team with a couple of the top athletes in the county (Dennis Scruggs & Jaqvan Holland, who is a sophomore).

Brian Nill took second for Shoreham in the 600 behind Scruggs (1:26.22). Scruggs ran 1:25.51).

Jason Demidow was fifth in the 55-hurdles (8.38 seconds). Marc Delaney was fifth in the shot put (45 feet, 9 1/2 inches).

Sophomore Alec Baron had a nice meet with a fourth-place finish in the long jump (20-04) and second-place in the triple jump (41-04 1/2).

The Wildcats' 4 x 800 relay team included Andrews, James Gladysz, Sean Norberg and Nill.

Kyle Wightman placed fifth in the 3,200 (10:08 1/2). Gladysz was fifth in the 1,000 (2:43.14).

Longwood boys track takes second in county

The Longwood Lions totaled 43 points last night in the Large School County Championship at Suffolk Community College, finishing behind only Northport (69 points).

Senior Barry Franklin had a terrific meet, taking first in both the 3,200 and 1,600. He ran 9 minutes, 37.6 seconds in the 3,200 and 4:34.78 in the 1,600.

The Lions also did well in the shot put once again. Senior Vinny Guida threw 48 feet, 2 inches for second place and senior Chris Searles was third with a throw of 47-09.

The Lions picked up six more points in the 4 x 200 with a third-place finish. That team included Searles, Brandon Smith, Rashawn Robinson and Demitrius Leonard.

Longwood's 4 x 800 team took sixth.

Senior Mike Maher grabbed a point in the 300-dash with a sixth-place finish (40.5).

The small school championship is Saturday at 6 p.m.

Miller Place hoops clinch; Mt. Sinai bowlers finish second

It was the North Shore vs. Westhampton last night in boys basketball and bowling. The Miller Place boys basketball team, coming off two straight losses, rebounded to clinch a playoff berth with a 59-39 win on the road. It was exactly what the Panthers needed to get a little confidence back after getting crushed by Glenn, 91-38, and giving one away against Shoreham-Wading River Tuesday.

Derrick Knudsen led the attack with 22 points, including five 3-pointers. The Panthers put the game away in the third quarter, outscoring the Hurricanes 25-10.

The panthers have a few days off before their next game Wednesday at home against Bayport-Blue Point, one of the best teams in the league. Bayport is 7-2 and beat Miller Place at home the first time around, 73-65.

In bowling it didn't work out as well for the North Shore. Mount Sinai headed to Westhampton with the League V title on the line. The Hurricanes came out victorious, 26-7, to end up with a total of 295.5 points while the Mustangs totaled 282.

Ashley Curcio led the Mustangs with a 515 three-game series. She had a high game of 205, the only 200-plus game for Mount Sinai.

Mount Sinai will now try its luck at the county tournament Feb. 9.

In other bowling news, Rocky Point will face Eastport Monday in a one-match playoff to determine the League V third-place team.