Fedge leads shorthanded Bellport in win over Deer Park
The Senior Night That Wasn't turned out to be more about what did happen Friday night at Bellport.
First, Bellport's boys basketball team made a statement before its regular-season finale. There would be no regularly scheduled senior farewell. Not with six teammates, three of them seniors, suspended and not allowed at the game - a decision made by Section XI in the fallout from Monday's suspended game between Bellport and Half Hollow Hills West.
Then, during the game, shorthanded Bellport delivered an impressive message. Playing with only eight players - five regulars and three junior varsity call-ups - the Clippers beat Deer Park, 66-38.
Bellport will compete as a full squad again next week in the playoffs. That's when the six players, who were suspended for leaving the bench area Monday after two Hills West parents ran onto the court after an altercation, will return.
Bellport hosts Whitman in the first round of the Suffolk Class AA postseason Friday. The Clippers, who finished 10-4 in League IV, plan to honor their senior class then.
"It was definitely something that brought the team together," said Bellport senior forward Connor Fedge, who had 17 points. "We were focused and played for the guys who weren't able to."
Armand Correa added 13 points and Bellport raced to a 17-2 lead at the end of the first quarter, leading by about 20 or more points from there. Deer Park (5-9), for its part, rotated in groups of seniors in its final game of the season.
After the Bellport players learned of the decision from Section XI, the governing body of Suffolk athletics, to suspend the six players, the team made a group decision to postpone senior ceremonies because not all could be present.
But there still was a type of acknowledgment in a pregame ceremony that named the team's MVP award in honor of former coach Jim McGowan. McGowan asked co-captains Fedge and Darren Yancey to read the names of the seniors who weren't there.
"Andrew Smith. John Mackie. Jari Harris," they announced to the crowd.
"This was important," Yancey (12 points) said afterward. "We wanted to have another home game for them so we could have a senior farewell."
