Daniel Berrios helps rally Miller Place over Glenn
Miller Place's Daniel Berrios goes around Tim Hirdt's pick during the Suffolk League VI boys basketball game against Glenn in East Northport on Wednesday, February 5, 2020. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
Daniel Berrios left Miller Place for a good reason. He came back for an even better one. The Panthers senior point guard was offered the chance to play last season at Our Savior New American and compete on a team with elite talent, a national schedule and against a number of foes with blue-chip recruits.
He’d gone to camps at the Centereach private school as a kid and had dreamed of going there so he jumped at the opportunity. And even though he enjoyed his season, he knew he wanted to return to Miller Place.
“That was fun, but this is family,” Berrios said after playing a starring role in the Panther’s 68-62 Suffolk A-VI road victory at Glenn.
“At Our Savior New American the players are from every part of the world. At Miller Place we’re all from the same area. I missed playing with these guys.”
Berrios had a team-high 20 points but his contribution on the defensive end may have been even greater as Miller Place (16-4, 13-3) rallied from a 10-point second-quarter deficit to pull out the win. Josh Fenner of Glenn (12-8, 10-6) scored 20 points in the first half before Panthers coach Brian Sztabnik decided to put Berrios on him in a variation of a box-and-one defense at the intermission.
Berrios managed to take Fenner all but out of the Glenn equation in the second half. He scored just eight after the break while Miller Place grabbed the momentum early in the third quarter with a 14-0 run. Although the Knights drew even late, the Panthers never trailed after that. “At halftime coach was like all ‘Berrios, you’re going to be on [Fenner]’ so I was all ‘time to step up to the plate,’” Berrios said. “Then I got the first steal from him and I knew I was locked in. I was like ‘this is my game and I’m going to take over and do my thing.’”
That first steal — which he took for a layup — was in the early going of the 14-0 run that was capped with six straight points from senior guard Thomas Cirrito to make it 39-34 with four minutes left in the third. When Glenn junior swingman Evan Tartgalia scored in transition, it drew the Knights into a tie at 54 with just under three minutes left. The Panthers answered with Berrios driving and kicking it to Justin Leichter for a three-pointer. Following an empty Glenn possession senior forward Tim Hirdt got an offensive rebound and threw out to Cirrito for another three. Just like that it was back to a six-point lead,” Cirrito said.
“You could see it took something out of them . . . Once we had the lead, the goal was to never let them get the momentum back and those threes did that.”
Cirrito had 19 points and Hirdt 14 points for Miller Place. Tartgalia had a career-best 22 points to go with Fenners' 28 for Glenn. Miller Place is hoping that a win like this could impact seeding for the Suffolk Class A Tournament, being determined at the end of this week. It finished behind only Amityville in its league. And it has a non-league win against League A-V co-champ Kings Park, which tied Hills West.
“This helps prepare us for the playoffs and it might help us with seeding,” Cirrito said. “In the end, you have to beat every team to win a championship, but we want to start as high as we can.”
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.
