Settlers’ season ends after comeback falls short in county final

Oh, so close. Yet so far.

Southold staged a fabulous comeback from a 23-point deficit that started midway through the third quarter, just falling short in the Suffolk County Class C boys basketball final on Sunday afternoon.

The second-seeded Settlers wound up dropping a frustrating and exhausting 62-59 decision to top-seeded Pierson at St. Joseph’s University in Patchogue.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t come out the way we wanted it to,” said Southold senior captain and forward Travis Sepenoski, who scored a team-high 20 points. “We’ve got guys getting stitched up right now. We’ve got guys not feeling too good right now, giving everything they’ve got. It didn’t fall our way. That’s basketball.”

But what a basketball game. 

Few teams have claimed to have come back from such a deep hole. The Settlers (13-8), however, had other ideas.

“We fought as hard as we could,” said senior forward Kyan Olsen, who contributed 16 points.

“I’m just glad we made it fun. It’s emotional in losing for the seniors. But we fought back. It shows the evolution of the team. A couple of years ago, we would go down, and we were not fighting like we did tonight.”

Trailing 44-21 with four minutes and 33 seconds remaining in the third quarter, the Settlers put their game into another gear. They outscored the Whalers, (16-5), 38-18.

They equalized at 59-all on Sepenoski’s triple from the left corner with 68 seconds remaining. Pierson (16-5), however, took the lead for good on Joel Mather’s (15 points) 15-footer with 18.4 seconds left.

Nate Culver (11 points) added a free throw with 3.3 seconds to go.

With 1.8 seconds remaining, Southold inbounded the ball at half court. Olsen attempted a long desperation shot, which fell short.

“I would have liked to have gotten a better look there,” Olsen said. “I kind of rushed it.”

The Settlers (13-8) stumbled to a slow start as they found themselves trailing 20-7 after the opening period and 34-16 at halftime.

“We felt we were selling ourselves short in the first half,” head coach Will Fujita said. “Playoff nerves. Pierson came out, they got hot. We struggled to kind of move the ball a little bit early.”

Instead of panicking, Fujita put together a game plan at halftime.

“I told them it was a 16-minute game now,” he said. “We have to dig ourselves out of a hole. We’ve done it before this year. We didn’t go hanging our heads. Just try to pick up the intensity defensively.”

“We weren’t yelling at people,” Sepenoski said. “New game. It was 18 points, chip away, cut it to 10, going to the fourth quarter. Just chip away. Defense. Get stops and try to get to the rim.”

Which Southold did. 

Six players contributed points during the surge: junior point guard Nico Califano, junior forward CJ Bailey, sophomore forward Brady Treharne, freshman guard Ben Zablotny, Olsen and Sepenoski.

Zablotny (eight points) said that the key was Southold’s “energy, and we never gave up. We knew that we were in the game the whole time. We were never out of the game.”

Califano needed to come out of the game after a collision with a Pierson (16-5) player, who opened a cut under his left eye. He missed about 90 seconds of action while his injury was worked on. Califano, who needed stitches afterward, put in a driving layup after he returned.

“He’s a tough kid,” Fujita said.

So is Sepenoski, who averaged 14.4 points per game and was the heart and soul of the team.

“Everybody sees Travis the athlete,” Fujita said. “I don’t think people appreciate Travis the person. When I came here, he was Jack’s little brother, had a little bit of a temper, was trying to find his own role.”

Jack Sepenoski had an outstanding career at Southold, capturing the school’s 2024 Suffolk Times’ boys athlete of the year.

Fujita said that Travis was “one of the best players I ever coached, as a leader, as a teammate. The basketball stuff aside, he’s a special person.”

The Southold coach wasn’t afraid of using younger players down the stretch. Zablotny canned a vital trey to start the final quarter, and Treharne finished with six points.

“I’m proud of everybody,” Fujita said. “That’s one of the best teams that I’ve had the privilege of being around. I ask a lot as a coach. That group of guys in there, they would do anything for each other, do anything for me. How could you not enjoy being around that?”