Ahkee Anderson sparks Center Moriches to Suffolk Class B title
Center Moriches forward Ahkee Anderson moves the ball into the Southampton zone in the Suffolk Class B final on Wednesday, February 19, 2020 at Centereach High School. Credit: George A. Faella
They heard the final buzzer sound on the Suffolk Class B championship game, but there wasn’t much of a victory celebration. They posed for a team photo after the hardware was awarded, but few of them smiled. The members of the Center Moriches boys basketball team expected all along they would capture their fourth straight county title.
What they didn’t expect was how much Southampton would make them sweat for it.
The Red Devils (20-1) twice found themselves locked in a tie game during the fourth quarter before senior guard Ahkee Anderson took control and guided Center Moriches to a 72-65 victory over the Mariners at Centereach High School. Center Moriches is county champion for the 17th time.
Southampton (15-6) sustained a serious blow when Sincere Faggins picked up his fourth and fifth fouls before three minutes had elapsed in the third quarter. Still the Mariners managed to knot the score in the fourth quarter, first at 50-50 on Artemi Gavalas' three-pointer from the corner and again 52-52 on LeBron Napier's layup off a feed from Dakoda Smith with 6:28 to play.
Anderson answered on the other end by putting back his own missed driving layup as he scored 14 of his 34 points in the final 5:44 to get Center Moriches back into the state tournament. The Red Devils will meet the Nassau Class B champion on March 10 in the Southeast Region semifinal/Long Island championship game.
They will face Suffolk Class C champ Southold on Saturday at Walt Whitman as they seek to defend their overall Suffolk championship.
“I don’t want to go home and I know this is an elimination game,” said Anderson, who scored 14 of the Devils’ last 20 points. “Those last four or five minutes? It’s game time. It’s time to close it out and take it home. So that’s what I did.”
“When (Anderson) goes off like he did, it’s crazy,” said junior forward Jaden Kealey, who had 12 points and 12 rebounds. “It’s like he’s non-stop. He’s our leader and he never lets us down.”
After Southampton missed a pair of free throws on the other end, Anderson was fouled and made two. The Mariners never got it back to a one-possession game. Anderson made all of his six free throws down the stretch and connected with Kealey for an alley-oop dunk with 3:10 left that was highlight-reel quality.
Dayrien Franklin added 12 points for CM. Napier had 13 points and Galvas, Smith and James Malone had 12 points each for Southampton. Faggins finished with 10 points.
“Losing a guy like (Faggins) is taking part of their heart and soul,” CM coach Nick Thomas said. “But we showed we are battle-tested from playing a tough schedule. We have that and Ahkee Anderson and other teams don’t.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
