Port Jeff Basketball Targets The Ross School in Next Round

The Port Jefferson boys’ varsity basketball team, fresh off winning the Suffolk Class C title on Feb.22 will play The Ross School for the C-D Championship this Friday at Farmingdale State College at 2:30 p.m.

Just ask Port Jefferson power forward Anthony Lanieri how he feels about his team’s chances when the Royals play The Ross School for the Suffolk County Class C-D Championship game this Friday and you’ll get a pretty good idea of where his team’s mindset is, at the moment.

“We beat The Ross School twice this season… so… we’re looking at playing Friends Academy [Port Jeff’s regional opponent] after that,” Lanieri said.

Enough said.

Not to take anything away from Ross (6-8 in League VIII), but when you’re one of the smallest schools on Long Island and you’re classified as one of only three Class D teams in the county, odds are, you’re going to be facing an extremely uphill battle in the Section XI championship playoff bracket.

Lanieri wasn’t trying to overlook The Ross School, which won the Suffolk Class D championship by default as the only Class D team to post enough wins to qualify for it, nor was he trying to discredit their chances of defeating Port Jefferson on Friday. He didn’t have to because the numbers do all the talking for him.

In their first meeting, back on Jan. 31, The Royals made the long bus ride east and handed Ross a 66-35 defeat, taking a 22-5 lead in the first quarter. It’s important to note Port Jefferson played the game without Greg Nielsen, one its top two leading scorers, due to injury.

Then on Feb. 16, the Royals beat Ross 80-52 at Port Jeff High School, with Nielsen scoring 20 points and pulling down 10 rebounds and Terrell Rose adding 14 points and 10 rebounds. 14 of Nielsen’s points were scored in the first quarter and if head coach Michael Riley hadn’t emptied his bench and used 11 players that night, the score could have easily been far more lopsided.

A win over Ross would propel Port Jefferson into the Suffolk Class B-CD Championship game on March 3 at Farmingdale (5 p.m.) against the winner of the Center Moriches-Mattituck Class B title game.

Ross does feature a standout shooter in Brandan Pettaway, who has averaged 17 points per game over the second half of the season and Hayden Aldredge has been a solid interior player as well.

Unfortunately, Ross will be facing a red-hot Royals team which is playing its best basketball of the season at the moment after defeating both Stony Brook and Greenport to win the Class C championship. Ross has no Nielsen, no Rose, no Anthony Lanieri, no Braden Colucci and certainly not a spunky defensive minded point guard in Phil Lanieri. It’s bad news for Ross any way you look at it.

“We’re a veteran team and we worked out some quirks against Greenport,” said Riley. “Our players are very talented and they’re playing really well right now.”