Top seed Southampton routs No. 3 Mattituck in Class B boys basketball county final
Sae’vion Ward, of Southampton, celebrates with Alex Franklin after he scores and is fouled in the third quarter of the Suffolk Class B championship against Mattituck on Sunday in Patchogue. Credit: Michael A. Rupolo Sr.
Southampton’s Alex Franklin surged forward and stole a pass around midcourt with 1:45 left in the third quarter. With open court in front of him, the star senior glided forward and leaped to deliver a one-handed dunk in front of packed bleachers filled with Mariners fans.
“There’s nothing like it; a county championship in front of your hometown,” Franklin said of the play. “It’s the best feeling in the world.”
That’s the stage Franklin and this Southampton program commands. And the curtains on this must-see show aren’t closing yet.
No. 1 Southampton won its fourth county title in the last five years Sunday at St. Joseph’s, beating No. 3 Mattituck, 78-37, in the Suffolk Class B boys basketball championship game. Southampton (16-5) will face the winner of Nassau’s Carle Place and Cold Spring Harbor at 5 p.m. Saturday at Farmingdale State for the Long Island championship.
Franklin, who battled a sprained ankle throughout the week, finished with 20 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and four steals across three quarters. Senior Saevion Ward had 20 points, seven assists and four steals.
“It’s just a level of comfort with those guys,” Southampton coach Herm Lamison said. “Alex has been on varsity for four years — he’s been to state championship games — and is just a solid, hard-working, great kid, just like Saevion is.
“Those guys are both contrived by the fire, and they’re able to lift others who haven’t had the opportunity to be where they’ve been.”
Southampton held a 17-6 lead after the first quarter and continued with a 14-2 run over the first six minutes of the second quarter. The Mariners led 36-12 at halftime and never lost control.
Senior Nate Barbour (nine points, five blocks) and junior Charlie Williams (six blocks) were dominant defensively in the paint.
“Charlie and Nate, we couldn’t have done it without them,” Ward said. “They protected that paint like their life depended on it.”
Sophomores Antonio Sparacio and Connor Searl led Mattituck (6-16) with 16 and 13 points, respectively. Smothering defense on the perimeter from Ward, senior Brian Spellman and freshman Terrell Terry off the bench made life difficult for the Tuckers.
Ward pointed to Southampton’s first game of the season, a loss to an eventual 16-win Westhampton team. Months later, the Mariners are now the 16-win team Ward always knew they could be.
“When we lost that game, everybody on this island switched up on us,” Ward said. “Everybody left us out. So this is big — we still got bigger fish to fry — but one step at a time.”
Michael Sicoli covers high school sports for Newsday. He graduated from Quinnipiac in 2022 and left with a master’s degree in sports journalism in 2023.
