What’s all the buzz about?
The Killer Bees were in town. That would be the Bridgehampton Killer Bees, Greenport’s ancient high school boys basketball rivals. READ
Tag: Bridgehampton
Fittingly, the buzz in the Southold High School gym came from the Killer Bees.
The Bridgehampton Killer Bees boys basketball team looked the part Friday evening in their black away uniforms with the bright yellow lettering and numbers.
And J.P. Harding? Well, he stung like a bee. READ
Two days after winning the Class C county championship, the Greenport boys basketball team faced Class D winner Bridgehampton in the Section XI Tournament Monday afternoon at Suffolk County Community College in Selden. The Porters won the non-elimination game 67-41 to advance to play the winner of Class B, either No. 1 Center Moriches or No. 2 Babylon. READ
No one saw it coming, no one at all.
Yes, the fans that filled up the Greenport High School gymnasium knew all about the game that pit the two best teams in Suffolk County League VIII against one another Wednesday night. But no one would have figured or predicted that Greenport would have recorded a resounding 80-48 victory over Bridgehampton.
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Pat McFarland had a career night. But even that wasn’t enough for the Southold High School boys basketball team on Friday the 13th.
In the first quarter of Friday’s game, McFarland nailed a three-point shot. A few moments later he hit another triple, all net, before swishing yet another trey in succession to the delight of the home fans.
One started to get a sense that it could be a special game for the Southold senior guard.
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Pat Mejsak, who scored 10 points for Southold, is challenged by Bridgehampton’s Tylik Furman while attempting a shot. (Credit: Garret Meade)
KILLER BEES 68, FIRST SETTLERS 36
Winning a league championship is nice. Going unbeaten through a league season is even nicer. Just ask the Bridgehampton High School boys basketball team.
Fourteen Suffolk County League VIII games played, 14 league games won. Bridgehampton showed why it has a 17-1 overall record, putting the finishing touches on the regular season Friday night and winning in resounding fashion at Southold High School. When the game ended, the scoreboard showed the Killer Bees on the positive end of a 68-36 score. (more…)
Greenport’s Matt Drinkwater looks for someone to pass to while being guarded by Bridgehampton’s Matt Hostetter. (Credit: Garret Meade)
KILLERS BEES 59, PORTERS 33
The early start to the Suffolk County League VIII boys basketball season places a premium on a quick start. Perhaps more than ever, it’s important for teams to bolt quickly out of the starting blocks.
The Greenport Porters tripped at the starting line. (more…)
GARRET MEADE PHOTO | An off-balance Angel Colon putting up a shot for Greenport during its county semifinal victory over Bridgehampton on Wednesday night.
SUFFOLK COUNTY CLASS D SEMIFINAL | PORTERS 55, KILLER BEES 52
Good shooters are made, not born. Gavin Dibble is no exception.
Dibble made himself into the shooter that he is. The Greenport High School senior said he shoots baskets every day.
“Repetition and practice,” he said. “It’s hours and hours of work. Usually in the off-season I shoot about 500 shots a day. That’s what it takes.” (more…)
 to their first playoff win in three years and a place in the county final against Shelter Island on Saturday. "Pin It")
DANA SHAW of THE SOUTHAMPTON PRESS | Congressman Tim Bishop and challenger Randy altschuler debate at the Bridgehampton School on Monday night.
The debate between Congressman Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) and Republican challenger Randy Altschuler in Bridgehampton on Monday turned inward when the candidates argued over campaign tactics in a race marked by a flood of attack ads.
The two men covered well-trodden ground in what was their fourth debate on the East End, once again laying out their differing visions for economic recovery.
But to a greater extent than in past debates, they expressed frustration over the tone of the race itself.
The candidates even attacked each other’s attacks during an extended exchange, with Mr. Altschuler calling the congressman’s tactics “filthy” and Mr. Bishop calling his opponent’s ads “unseemly.”
“This has been an ugly, bruising campaign,” Mr. Bishop said. “I think Mr. Altschuler regrets that. I regret that. I think even within the
context of an ugly, bruising campaign, I think family should be off-limits.”
Mr. Bishop, a Democrat running for his sixth term, was referring to what he claimed were recent attacks by Mr. Altschuler’s campaign claiming Mr. Bishop’s wife, Kathy, a preschool director, and 33-year-old daughter, Molly, his political fundraiser, have benefited from his political and professional connections.
Mr. Bishop has rejected those charges in the past.
Mr. Altschuler said he tried to run a positive campaign, filming an ad with his family and releasing a jobs plan, but was quickly drawn into a brawl that he claims Mr. Bishop started.
“I would say 98 percent of his money or more is spent saying negative things about me, and not at one point talking about the things he’s done in the last 10 years in Congress,” Mr. Altschuler said.
Mr. Bishop called that account “disingenuous.”
“Before we had run a single ad, before we had said anything at all, July 28, Mr. Altschuler has a press conference in front of my office in
Patchogue to attack my daughter and my wife,” he said. “So, please, please don’t be the choir boy when it comes to negative campaigning.”
Mr. Altschuler also called that characterization “totally disingenuous.”
The exchange built off a similar one in Hamptons Bays last month, when a high school senior asked the candidates why they were running negative ads rather than touting their own accomplishments.
The two men also discussed the role of super political action committees, or “super PACs” in the campaign. Super PACs are groups that can make unlimited amounts of political spending independent of campaigns.
Both regretted the phenomenon, largely the result of a U.S. Supreme Court decision two years ago on Citizens United v. Federal Election
Commission. But both have benefited from super PAC money in this year’s election.
Mr. Altschuler said it’s “an unfortunate situation we’re in,” and Mr. Bishop said super PACs “fundamentally threaten our democracy.”
The candidates spoke at length on a host of other issues, including unemployment and the economy, taxes and bipartisanship.
The debate, which focused on jobs and the economy for the first half, kicked off with a question posed to both on whether cutting taxes creates jobs. Mr. Altschuler said he believes it does, while Mr. Bishop said there’s no evidence that proves cutting taxes alone will create jobs.
They rehashed some of the same issues from prior debates, once again addressing the attacks on outsourcing and ethics, while
defending themselves.
Mr. Altschuler has been heavily criticized by the Bishop campaign for being an outsourcing pioneer. Mr. Bishop has had his ethics challenged on whether his campaign solicited donations for helping a constituent get necessary permits for a fireworks show this summer.
The two also explained their positions on abortion.
The next presidential administration could appoint at least two Supreme Court justices, which could determine future decisions on issues like abortion. Mr. Altschuler said he is pro-life, with the exceptions of rape, incest and the health of the mother. Mr. Bishop said he is
pro-choice, and that he shares former President Bill Clinton’s views that abortions should be “safe, legal and rare.”
The debate was the second in a series of debates sponsored by The Press News Group, which covers the South Fork, and Times/Review News Group of the North Fork.
It will conclude on Thursday, Oct. 25, when the newspaper groups will cosponsor another debate with the League of Women Voters of the
Hamptons.
That debate will take place at the Westhampton Beach High School on Lilac Road in Westhampton Beach at 7 p.m.
Ms. Abbas is a reporter for the Press News Group of Southampton.
 and Republican challenger Randy Altschuler in Bridgehampton on Monday "Pin It")
GARRET MEADE PHOTO | Greenport senior Sean Charters is comforted by assistant coach Ev Corwin after walking off the court for the last time as a Porter.
SUFFOLK CLASS D FINAL | KILLER BEES 73, PORTERS 50
The Bridgehampton boys basketball team had waited long enough. It had been 12 years — 12 long years — since the team’s last Suffolk County championship, so when the Killer Bees claimed their first county crown since 2000 on Monday, it must have tasted as sweet as honey.
And the fact that the triumph came at the expense of Greenport — a rival that had stood in Bridgehampton’s way for so many years — had to make it just that much sweeter.
While teammates such as Tylik Furman, Caanan Campbell and Jason Hopson had received much of the media attention during the regular season, it was a freshman, Davion Cooper, who came off the bench and stole the limelight. Cooper, a 6-foot-3 forward, struck for 26 points and five 3-point shots, both career highs, in No. 2 seed Bridgehampton’s 73-50 defeat of top-seeded Greenport in the Suffolk Class D final at Suffolk County Community College’s Brookhaven Gymnasium in Selden.
Afterward, the Porters had to watch as Bridgehampton raised the county plaque and was saluted by fans.
“I was nervous,” said Cooper, who was 3 years old the last time Bridgehampton lifted a county trophy. “I didn’t know if I was going to score, but as soon as I made that first shot it felt real great. After that, everything started clicking for me.”
Cooper’s deft shooting touch helped turn things around for Bridgehampton (9-11), which found itself in a 17-6 hole after a reverse layup by Greenport’s Sean Charters late in the first quarter. But Cooper hit his first four shots, and Bridgehampton was off and running.
GARRET MEADE PHOTO | Billy Doucett of Greenport maneuvering toward the basket with Bridgehampton's Caanan Campbell in his wake.
“I wasn’t expecting 26 points, but I’ll take it,” Bridgehampton coach Carl Johnson told reporters. “I had him on the bench waiting, and he couldn’t wait to get in.”
Johnson said the coaching staff knew what Cooper — a player he described as having “ice in his veins” — was capable of doing. “I knew if he hit that first shot, then he was going to have a good game,” the coach said. “That’s the way he is. Being a young player, he’s up and down. Once he got the confidence, I knew he was going to have a great game at that point.”
Bridgehampton shot well throughout the game, downing a sizzling 70.5 percent of its field-goal attempts, nearly twice the rate of Greenport’s 38.8 percent.
In addition, Bridgehampton’s height and length made a difference. The Killer Bees limited Greenport’s offensive opportunities by holding the Porters to only 5 offensive rebounds.
“What can I say?” Greenport coach Al Edwards said. “Bridgehampton played well. We didn’t lose to a bad team, that’s for sure.”
The Killer Bees are young (they start two eighth-graders, Furman and Josh Lamison), but talented. At this stage of the season, Johnson said, they’re veterans.
Hopson delivered 18 points and Furman had 16. Campbell was too much for the Porters to handle in the paint. The 6-5 senior put in a full day with 11 points, 13 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 blocks and 2 steals.
Greenport sophomore Gavin Dibble, coming off a career-high 39-point performance with a school-record 10 3-pointers, led the Porters (12-7) with 18 points. Charters had 10 points. Austin Hooks grabbed 12 rebounds to go with 9 points.
Bridgehampton and Greenport split their two regular-season games, with the Killers Bees winning the most recent one by 30 points on Feb. 3. They proved that wasn’t a fluke.
An 18-2 run provided Bridgehampton with a 24-19 lead in the second quarter on Monday. The Killer Bees sank 10 of 12 shots from the field in the second quarter, outscoring Greenport by 21-10 in the period.
Greenport started the third quarter with two baskets by Charters (one a 3-pointer), and layups by Matt Dibble and Gavin Dibble giving the Porters their final lead of the game at 36-34.
Then Bridgehampton pulled away, continually stretching its lead to as many as 24 points.
“They just came out with a lot of intensity in the second quarter and kept it going in the second half, and ended up coming up with a big win,” Hooks said. “We just weren’t knocking down our shots. We weren’t capitalizing on our free throws, missing open layups, and they capitalized as much as they could.”
The game marked the end of the road for Greenport, which turned in a memorable season despite playing most of it with only seven players on its roster.
It was also the end of the high school careers of two Porters, Charters and reserve Mike Reed. Charters, who began his 10-year association with the program as a ball boy before becoming a varsity starter, had tears in his eyes when he was pulled out of the game with 1 minute 53 seconds remaining.
“I’m still holding my head up high,” Edwards said. “I’m proud of the kids. We had a good season. I don’t think anybody really thought that we would go this far, but, hey, the kids worked hard, they played hard all year.”
Johnson said he had reminded two of his seniors, Campbell and Brendan Hemby, what it felt like to lose to Greenport the last time Bridgehampton reached the county final four years ago. The Killer Bees made certain that didn’t happen again. They will play either No. 1 Stony Brook or No. 2 Pierson in a Class C-D game on Wednesday at Farmingdale State College.
“Last year when we went 2 and 16, people doubted us,” Cooper said, “but we knew once we got all our teammates together, we were going to come back next year and show them that the Bridge is back.”
