Pierson’s Ben Kushner shooting for two of his 18 points against Southold on Thursday. The Whalers won, 60-46, to advance to Monday’s Suffolk County Class C Championship game against Stony Brook.
By Gavin Menu; photography by Michael Heller
The Pierson boys basketball team took its first step toward an elusive goal Thursday, beating rival Southold, 60-46, to advance from the opening round of the Suffolk County Class C playoffs.
Waiting in the championship game are the Stony Brook Bears, winners of the last two Class C titles, who will square off against the Whalers Monday at 3 p.m. at William Floyd High School.
Playing Thursday on their home court for the final time, Pierson seniors Ben Kushner and Robbie Evjen came alive in the second half to help build on a 10-point halftime lead. Kushner finished with a game-high 18 points, including four three-pointers, and said following the game that he had already turned his attention toward Stony Brook.
“We know what we need to do,” said Kushner, who hit two of his three-pointers during a 16-0 run in the first half that blew the game wide open. “We lost [to Stony Brook] by three the first time, by one the second time, and we don’t plan on losing again.”
Evjen scored 11 of his 15 points in the second half and dominated the paint on both ends of the floor. The Whalers defense, led by the play of Stephen Musnicki, held Southold star Liam Walker to just eight points, well below his season average.
The Whalers offense, on the other hand, was best described as sloppy, in the first half in particular, which was something they turned around as the game wore on.
“The sloppiness was half them and half me,” Pierson head coach Dan White said. “We were trying to run some stuff because Robbie has such an advantage inside, but Robbie was getting killed. They’re a dangerous team and we’re happy to be going forward.”
Stony Brook, which is a private school, beat Pierson by 27 points in last year’s Suffolk final, but graduated or lost a number of extremely talented players. The teams this year are much closer in terms of size and talent, so Monday’s game has the potential to become an instant classic.
“We have to play better,” White said about the match-up. “They’re deep, they’ve got shooters and they’ve got a big guy. We’ve had two nail biters with them and if we play well, it will be the same thing again.”
Pierson’s Sean Sloane driving against Southold’s Shayne Johnson.
