Port Jeff Boys Win Class C Title in Basketball

Playing four complete quarters, the boys’ basketball team defied recent history, the odds and their critics on their way to defeating perennial champion Greenport 56-53 on Tuesday afternoon to win the Suffolk County Class C championship.

“This feels amazing, it’s like the greatest feeling of my life,” said Royals starting forward Anthony Lanieri as he rejoiced at center court with his teammates.

It was only moments after Port Jefferson defeated Greenport 56-53 at Longwood High School to capture the Suffolk County Class C championship, in what has been an ongoing Cinderella story the last few days.

“We were like the underdog basically and we came though and beat both teams,” Lanieri said, referring to Port Jefferson’s 53-48 win over The Stony Brook School on Saturday in the Suffolk Class C semifinal.

The defending Class C champion Bears had defeated the Royals twice during the regular season, both times by decisive margins.

Port Jefferson (11-5 overall) had also lost twice to Greenport (18-2) in the regular season and with its plethora of three-point shooters, the Porters, one of the most championship decorated high school basketball programs in New York State, looked to make it three in a row this afternoon.

Instead, Greenport found itself boxed out, outrebounded, outshot and outhustled for most of the game as the Porters were forced to play a losing game of catch up. Greenport never held a lead in the game, due largely to the play of Port Jefferson’s starters: Terrell Rose, Greg Nielsen (14 points, eight rebounds), Anthony Lanieri (10 points, 10 rebounds), Braden Colucci and Phil Lanieri (six rebounds, two steals).

“Our game plan was to go hard the whole game, get after their three-point shooters and get to the rebounds by playing hard,” Anthony Lanieri added.

When the Royals weren’t getting to loose rebounds, they were pushing the ball down the court with lightning quick legs and pinpoint passing, setting up their shooters like Rose, who was on fire most of the game, scoring a game-high 22 points, while also pulling down eight rebounds and adding seven assists.

“We had a few kinks we needed to work out [from the last time we played Greeenport] and we finally got it together and kept our composure,” said Rose. “I think we could have won by more, but we kept our cool under all that pressure. We finally have our full starting lineup back together too, so that helps.”

Royals head coach Michael Riley paced the up and down the court like a caged lion in the early minutes, keeping his team focused on pushing the pace of the game to Greenport, which played a slower style and looked to set up their three-point game. Port Jefferson led 16-11 after the first quarter, with Rose and Nielsen doing the bulk of the scoring from both the paint and beyond the arc. The Royals increased their lead to 28-17 at halftime as Rose had 14 points and Nielsen added nine.

The third quarter saw Colucci (four points, five rebounds) make a spectacular play, grabbing a rebound of a failed Porters three-point attempt and dribbling down the court before making a behind the back bounce pass to himself to get free of a defender on his way for a lay up. The basket put Port Jefferson ahead 38-29 and the Royals led 41-34 after three quarters.

Greenport’s three-point shooters finally found some room in the last few minutes of the fourth quarter and the Royals saw their comfortable lead evaporate to a slim one-point margin (54-53 with 21 seconds left in regulation). Fortunately, Port Jefferson kept its composure drew a foul and held on to do what they weren’t supposed to do this season…win a championship.

“This is so great,” said Phil Lanieri. “We lost two in a row to Greenport, but we came in here with a lot of motivation and a lot of heart, took the lead the entire game, sealed the deal at the end and won. We’re moving on now to the Long Island championship and possibly New York State.”

Port Jefferson will play The Ross School for the Suffolk Class C-D championship on Friday at Farmingdale State College at 2 p.m. and will play Friends Academy in a Regional Semi-Final at SUNY Old Westbury on March 9.