Settlers fall just short after late rally, but playoff hopes still alive

For sheer entertainment, fans at the Southold vs. St. Pius V boys basketball game got their money’s worth and then some on Friday night. There were plenty of heroics on both sides, including an impressive fourth-quarter rally by the Settlers in which they came back. Sophomore forward Kyan Olsen canned a trey with 12.2 seconds remaining to give the hosts a precious one-point lead.
The Crusaders, however, spoiled Southold’s hopes of victory as Dom Fantz drove in for a layup with three seconds left for the final points of a 73-72 win in the Suffolk County League VIII encounter.
“It’s really a roller coaster of emotions the whole time,” said Olsen, who led the Settlers with 24 points. “When the crowd gets into it, it’s a fun environment, but a couple of mistakes cost it. We’ll get them next time.”
Southold head coach Will Fujita was impressed with his team’s effort. “I can’t remember any time as a coach that we’ve scored 70 points in a game and lost.”
It was a tough way to lose such a hard-fought battle, but the Settlers (7-8, 6-7) felt they made progress. The hosts’ ball-handling was outstanding. They made only one turnover in the first half and six in the game.
“We finally played with some energy that we have been missing for a lot of the season, but it’s been building,” said senior guard Jacob Steinfeld, who helped fuel the fourth-quarter rally, scoring eight of his 14 points. “We’ve been trying to improve. We played a good game, other than a couple of lapses. I’m proud of the team.”
So was Fujita, who took the blame for the defeat.
“As I was expecting, going into the locker room, there were some heads hanging,” he said. “I go, ‘There is nothing that anyone should hang their heads about.’ We had a game plan. We had a few lapses in that game plan, just trying to slow them down a little bit. That’s just bad coaching, not being prepared in those moments. It has nothing to do with them.”
The Settlers grabbed a 31-27 halftime advantage before St. Pius surged into a 51-48 lead at the end of the third quarter, when Fantz collected 11 of his 21 points.
The fourth quarter turned into a chess match as six timeouts were called over the final four minutes. Southold outscored the visitors in the final frame, 24-22.
St. Pius (8-5, 8-5) enjoyed as much as a 61-51 lead with four minutes and four seconds remaining.
Then the Settlers went to work. Junior forward Travis Sepenoski (seven points), who grabbed several vital defensive rebounds down the stretch, started the comeback by canning two free throws with 3:56 left.
Steinfeld went on his eight-point tear over a remarkable 74-second span, sinking two treys and two foul shots to pull the Settlers within 64-61 with 2:20 to play.
Things looked rather bleak for Southold in the final 45.7 seconds as St. Pius junior guard Matt Polhaski (game-high 27 points) hit two foul shots for a Crusaders’ 68-64 advantage.
But Southold refused to wilt. Sophomore guard Brandon Moran drove in for a layup with 38.1 seconds left. After a Polhaski foul shot, Settlers senior forward Nik Talabadze (10 points) downed a trey for a 69-69 tie with 25.3 seconds remaining.
Polhaski then sank a pair of foul shots with 22.6 seconds to go, setting up Olsen’s trey for a 72-71 lead with 12.2 seconds left.
“I got a little bit of space,” Olsen said. “As soon as I get space, I know that’s going in.”
Then came the crushing blow, Fantz’s layup with three seconds remaining.
With time running out, Sepenoski tried a Hail Mary shot from the far end of the court that fell short.
The Settlers can still reach the playoffs. After playing at first-place Bridgehampton on Tuesday, they will host Ross on Friday at 6 p.m. and visit second-place Greenport on Saturday at 3:45 p.m. Southold will close out its schedule with two home games against Shelter Island on Feb. 3 and Smithtown Christian on Feb. 5.
“We have to win three out of the next five. There’s no other option,” Fujita said. “I think that we can give any team that we play a good game. … We have to be emotionally mature enough to handle whatever environment we go into.”
Added Sepenoski: “I’m pretty optimistic. If we can do that every night in the rest of these games, I think we have a good chance of making it.”