Sailors play tough in defeat

Oceanside’s boys’ basketball team found out defending Conference AA-I champion Freeport is loaded with more than just the All-County backcourt of senior guards Leondre Simmon and Jere Brown.

Simmon had 13 points plus seven assists, and Brown scored 10 of his 15 in the third quarter, but it was the combined efforts of 6-foot-4 junior forward Jovanni Moreno (eight points) and junior guard Kayhiem Chaplin that paved the way for Freeport’s 64-56 victory last Friday night over the visiting Sailors. Chaplin’s team-high 26 was his highest-scoring mark the campaign.

“There wasn’t a second our kids didn’t think they could win,” Oceanside coach Dan Keegan said. “They played so hard.” 

According to Red Devils coach Bob DeBonis, the key to victory was keeping the ball out of the hands of Oceanside’s 6-foot-7 junior center Hunter Sabety (17 points), who has scored in double-digits in each of the first seven games of the season. Sabety ranks No. 17 in Nassau County with 17.1 points per game and also 17th in rebounds per game (4.7). “We tried to pressure their guards a little bit more to make it tougher to get the big guy the ball,” DeBonis said. “Our guards did a great job of pressuring the ball. We knew [Sabety] was a great player coming into the game; one of the best big guys in the county.”

Sabety, who is three inches taller than anyone on Freeport’s roster, used his distinct height advantage to score 10 of Oceanside’s first 14 points, which propelled his team into halftime with a 29-26 lead. But it was a true tale of two halves, as DeBonis’ switch from a zone to a man-to-man defense helped Freeport chip away at the deficit, while staving off Sabety’s relentless attack. The Red Devils trailed by as many as 10, but they dug down deep to improve to 8-0 overall.

“They switched to man and cut our lead from 10 to three, and they stayed in man the rest of the way,” Keegan said. “We knew Chaplin was a good shooter, but [tonight] he was exceptional.” 

Freeport opened the second half with 10 unanswered points and held the Sailors off the board for the first three and a half minutes of the third quarter, ultimately coasting to a lopsided 23-12 frame in their favor. “[Sabety] was getting it too easy [early in the game], but once we started putting the pressure on, it pushed their offense to the outside,” DeBonis added. “We knew what they were going to throw at us, we just had to shoot the ball better, and it took a little while to get going.”

As for Oceanside (2-5), it played hard until the final whistle three days after a solid performance in a loss to Uniondale. Sophomore guard Casey Kelly hit for 14 points against Freeport, with all but two coming from behind the arc, and senior Dennis Treanor chipped in 10 points.