Southold honors Dylan Newman in emotional win over Greenport

This one was for Dylan.

Again.

On Jan. 13, 2023, Jack Sepenoski wore Dylan Newman’s number five and scored all of his eight points in the fourth quarter to lead Southold to a triumph over Greenport, honoring his friend and teammate in an emotional game. Newman passed away on Sept. 20, 2022, after a four-year battle with cancer. He was 18.

On Tuesday night, younger brother Travis, also wearing five, paid homage to his former teammate with a career night. The senior forward scored 19 points, grabbed 15 rebounds, dished out five assists, produced four steals and blocked one shot.

Captain and junior forward Kyan Olsen also recorded 19 points, combining with an enveloping defense to seal a 61-34 home victory over Greenport before a capacity home crowd.

“Obviously a big thing,” Sepenoski said. “The foundation is helping other people, cancer research and things like that. It’s really important. It’s bigger than the game. It’s just good to have a team thing that the town can all come together to, that’s not just us playing basketball. It’s for a bigger thing.”

Sepenoski also came up big.

“He’s doing a great job of buying into the role that we’re trying to carve out for him,” head coach Will Fujita said. “Last year, I asked him to do a lot. This year, we’re trying to keep things simple, so that he can be the best version of himself, because he’s very good at a lot of things.”

The Settlers (3-0, 1-0) also defeated their archrivals and recorded their first Suffolk County League VI victory of the season.

“It was great team effort,” Fujita said. “Any win that you can get early in the season, especially against a team that you know we might be seeing in the playoffs, is one that we get excited about.”

The Settlers’ ball-hawking strategy forced the Porters into 33 turnovers. They had only 13.

“It just wears teams down,” Sepenoski said.

Junior guard Brandon Moran led the way with eight steals, and added four points. CJ Bailey added three steals off the bench, and Nico Califano had one. The entire starting five, including Collin Cornell, played key roles defensively.

“I’m really proud of how our team defense has come along,” Moran said with a big smile. “A good defense leads to a good offense … Having that momentum leads not even to confidence in myself, but to the rest of the team as well.”

Fujita said that Moran “wants to be the best defender on the team, which is a tall task, because I think that Travis is one of the best defenders in the county. CJ is right up there with him. Everybody has been doing their job on defense. Nico does an awesome job with on-ball pressure as well. I was really happy with the effort that everybody gave.”

Both sides got off to stumbling starts.

In fact, there was no opening tip-off. Greenport (1-1, 0-1) was assessed a technical foul when a player wound up hanging from the rim during pre-game warmups, which is against the rules.

“I’ve never seen it [before],” Olsen said. “I hear two free throws. It’s two warm-up shots. I’ll take it.”

He sank both.

The Porters took a 12-8 lead by the end of the period but suffered nine turnovers. The Settlers gave away the ball only once in the quarter but shot 3-for-24 from the field.

Olsen’s layup at 3:46 of the second quarter lifted the hosts into a 16-14 lead they never relinquished. After Greenport moved within 32-29 on Troy Myers’ layup and free throw with 2:40 remaining in the third period, the Settlers went on a 15-0 run for a 47-29 advantage. Olsen scored six points during the surge, Sepenoski five. Yiannis Gavalas and Moran added one basket apiece.

“It’s really just feeding off the energy from the crowd,” Olsen said. “We got so many people coming to support us. You get one. It just compounds, and everybody’s staying disciplined, staying focused, talking on defense.”

It was a tough game for Greenport, led by Namiah Santacroce’s 16 points.

“We started off rough,” head coach Justin Moore said. “We knew Southold would be a tough match-up. They’re a very physical team, and they really put that on display.

“More turnovers than I had expected. But we’re a young team. For us to move forward, we have to be able to clean that up.”