Comsewogue's offense on in boys basketball victory over Hampton Bays
Comsewogue guard Hayden Morris-Gray drives the lane past Hampton Bays forward Kazim Pensa-Johnson in a Suffolk Division IV game on Tuesday at Comsewogue. Credit: George A Faella
Comsewogue showed it can do just fine in a high-scoring game, coming away with a 91-77 boys basketball win over Hampton Bays on Tuesday night.
Hampton Bays, which has scored 80 or more points in six games this winter, suffered just its third loss of the season.
Comsewogue had not scored more than 74 points before Tuesday.
“Scoring 91 points is not easy,” Comsewogue coach Joel Sutherland said.
“But when they’re moving the ball and playing within our system and trusting in each other, it becomes a little bit easier.”
Hayden Morris-Gray scored 29 points, Colin Strohm had 26 points and Austin Nesbitt added 22, marking the first time this season that three Comsewogue players finished with 20 or more points.
“Everybody ate today,” Strohm said. “Everybody got their shots and everyone got off the looks that they wanted. That’s always going to count for something good when we’re all hitting.”
Hampton Bays, led by Kazmin Pensa-Johnson’s 36 points, trailed by 13 early in the fourth quarter. It cut the deficit to six points with 4:20 remaining but did not inch any closer.
“[Hampton Bays] pushed us a little bit, which is what we want,” Sutherland said. “But my guys stood tough.”
Comsewogue (9-3) grabbed the early lead behind Morris-Gray’s 11 first-quarter points. After three Hampton Bays fast-break layups, Comsewogue shut down the visitors’ transition offense and trapped Hampton Bays once it crossed midcourt.
Still, Hampton Bays (9-3) did not trail by more than 12 points in the first half.
Comsewogue led by a dozen with just over a minute to play in the half, and Hampton Bays, led by Patrick Donahue’s three-pointer and a buzzer-beating fast-break layup, cut the deficit to 42-36 at the break.
“We just never put our heads down,” Morris-Gray said. “Even though they were coming back, we were still winning, we still had momentum. We were still playing good, so that’s all that matters.”
Morris-Gray swished three of his six three-pointers during the third quarter.
Pensa-Johnson scored 24 points in the second half, forcing Comsewogue to lean on a motto it created before the season.
“Our theme this year is ‘big trust,’ just relying on the guy next to them,” Sutherland said. “At the end of the day, it’s going to be who can step up and make a play. And tonight it was one guy after the next. It really wasn’t one person.”
