Darnell Evans leads Amityville to Suffolk overall title; game marred by melee

The Brentwood and Amityville boys basketball teams already had solidified their spots in the Long Island championship game in their respective classes. Both had more to play for Thursday night, though, and certainly put on quite a show.

Behind the sharpshooting of Darnell Evans, Class A champion Amityville earned an 80-72 win over Class AA champion Brentwood in the Suffolk overall championship game inside a packed Ward Melville gymnasium.

Evans had 25 points, nine assists and five rebounds. Divaahd Lucas added 20 points and 12 rebounds and Myles Goddard had 19 points and 10 rebounds for the Warriors.

Jordan Riley led Brentwood with 27 points.

“Our guys like to look at the rankings a lot and we knew this was going to be a back-and-forth game,” Amityville coach Gordon Thomas said. “I knew we could beat them and we were able to execute what we wanted to do and came out with the win.”

The turning point came with less than five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

Romello Wright nailed a three-pointer to give Brentwood a 65-64 lead, its first since 9-8 in the first quarter.

Lucas then was fouled by Riley, who picked up his fourth foul. Before Lucas headed to the free-throw line, Riley was issued a technical foul and had to leave the game. Lucas made the two technical free throws and two more free throws to give the Warriors a 68-65 lead.

“I just tried to keep my calm and keep my composure,” Lucas said. “I have been through these type of situations before, so I just tried to lead my team as best as possible.”

Lucas scored on the Warriors’ next possession to put Amityville up by 5. Goddard extended the lead to 72-65 with a layup, capping an 8-0 Warriors run.

Brentwood (22-2) will play the Nassau Class AA champion (Uniondale or Baldwin) in the Long Island Class AA championship/Southeast Regional final at 2:30 p.m. March 15 at Farmingdale State.

Amityville (23-2) will play the Nassau A champion (Elmont or South Side) in the Long Island Class A championship/Southeast Regional final at noon March 15 at Farmingdale State.

“We have to sharpen up between now and then,” Evans said.

The game was marred by a postgame melee.

After the game, words were exchanged between the benches of both teams after Brentwood coaches took exception to an attempted uncontested last-second dunk by Amityville that rimmed out. As the teams lined up for the postgame handshake, Brentwood’s Isaiah Randolph shoved Lucas before the melee erupted.

Some Amityville fans behind the bench charged the court, with one woman picking up a chair before she was stopped by Section XI security.

According to John Dee, the coordinator of supervision and admissions for all Section VIII and Section XI events, Suffolk police were already on the scene because of the big crowd and parking control

Dee said that “[police] came into the building after security had the melee under control and order restored.”

Dee added: “The end of the game worked out some hard feelings and some comments that led to a Brentwood player shoving an Amityville player at the front of the handshake line. Amityville coach Gordon Thomas did a great job controlling the situation, as did his players by maintaining their composure. It was the Brentwood players that were upset and that was what ignited the whole situation. The situation escalated briefly when the Brentwood parents charged across the court to the Amityville bench. Our staff interceded before any punches were thrown or anyone was injured. A woman with a chair tried to gain access to the court and was immediately shut down and separated from the chair. No arrests were made and a full report will be filed with Tom Combs, the executive director from Section XI.”

With Gregg Sarra