Suffolk County High School Basketball Finals Head to Stony Brook

Fans from across Suffolk County will fill the Stony Brook University gymnasium for Section XI county finals on Friday, March 6 and Saturday, March 7, with tickets required in advance. Messengerpapers reports that each game requires a GoFan ticket and no tickets are sold at the door; William Floyd’s athletic site lists tickets at $9.40 (fees included), says children 12 and under are free, and notes QR codes will be available at the gate.

Friday’s schedule opens with Mount Sinai girls against Shoreham-Wading River at 3:00 p.m., followed by the Class AAA girls final at 8:00 p.m. when William Floyd (No. 2) meets top-seeded Walt Whitman at Stony Brook University. Winners of each Suffolk County final will move on to meet the Nassau County champions the following weekend for Long Island class titles.

Saturday’s slate features Mount Sinai boys versus Kings Park at 12:00 p.m., the Class AA title game between Smithtown West and Half Hollow Hills West at 2:30 p.m., and the Class AAA large-school final with William Floyd boys facing Bay Shore at 5:00 p.m. Smithtown West finished league play a perfect 16-0 with only a non-league loss to Baldwin, while Half Hollow Hills West posted a 15-1 regular-season record en route to the AA championship game.

Mount Sinai returns to the finals on two fronts: the boys, who won the school’s first Suffolk County and Long Island Class A championships last year, play Kings Park on Saturday at noon, and the Mount Sinai girls take on Shoreham-Wading River Friday at 3:00 p.m. Messengerpapers highlights Mount Sinai’s repeat bids as a storyline across the weekend.

William Floyd’s programs carry local milestones into the county weekend. The girls reached the Class AAA final after a 56-45 semifinal victory over Ward Melville on Saturday, February 28, in which Milania Farrow hit a buzzer-beating three at the end of the first half to create a 23-14 halftime edge; the William Floyd site lists the girls at 16-4 overall and 13-3 in League I under head coach Rich Sinclair and notes this is the first championship game in program history. The Colonials’ boys will play Bay Shore on Saturday at 5:00 p.m.

A recent Section XI Class C final at Stony Brook offers a preview of the defensive intensity the finals can produce. Stony Brook (13-9) beat Greenport (14-8) 49-35 in a game in which Greenport managed only 12 points at halftime despite averaging 72.5 points per game and posting nine 80-plus point outings earlier in the season. Bohuny led Stony Brook with 19 points and 12 rebounds on 7-of-14 shooting, Providence the 5-5 senior guard scored 15 points, and Etienne finished with eight points, 13 rebounds and five blocks before fouling out with 1:25 remaining. Stony Brook coach Mike Hickey said, "It really is astonishing," and added of Etienne, "Even when he doesn't block a shot, he alters it." On the game plan to contain Greenport freshman guard Ahkee Anderson, Hickey said, "I knew how important it was to limit Ahkee's touches and sometimes get in his head." Section XI boys’ basketball chairman Bob Mayo presented the championship plaque to Hickey after the game.

Coaching pedigrees and program distinctions are part of the weekend’s narrative. The Stony Brook School, a private prep program coached by Ron White, won the NYSAIS Division B title with an 80-66 victory over Dalton School on February 25 and finished 20-7 while also claiming a PSAA crown; White said, "There's nothing like giving back to the community, and I learned back from eons ago in my time in my stomping grounds of Bridgehampton, from grade school, we have a championship mentality. In everything we do we want to be champions in it. Sometimes that can lead to being in a lonely, desolate place. Other times it can be the most rewarding and exciting thing." White added, "Fortunately for us this year, we were healthy ... as we got to the semis we were healthy, and these guys looked at each other and said, 'Let's take care of business.' And they did just that. I'm really proud of the work that Josh Crane, the head of school, has done, and the amazing work of our admissions director, Luke Heywood."

The Stony Brook University gym will decide multiple county champions over the two days, and those winners will carry Suffolk’s flag into Long Island championship matchups against Nassau County the following weekend.