East Hampton Loses on Senior Night

The pep band was there. The gym, its bleachers packed, had an electric atmosphere. It was Senior Night in East Hampton for the boys’ basketball team.

With a victory needed to qualify for the postseason, the setting was perfect. The ending, however, turned out to be imperfect.

Morgan (5-14) rallied in the second half for a 51-44 victory behind Tyler Anglin’s 17 points.

“Morgan came to play. We came to play to, but they were able to execute down the stretch and we couldn’t,” East Hampton coach Parker Strong said.

It was a sluggish start for both teams, with neither able to find the bottom of the net until Morgan’s Nick Powers hit a three-pointer almost four minutes into the game. East Hampton didn’t score until 3:12 was left in the quarter when senior Mike Loffredo scored from the baseline. Loffredo made it 4-3 off a nice assist on a layup from Matt Vasquenza and added another layup to make it 6-3 heading into the second.

“Mike [Loffredo] was a huge spark for us in the first quarter, he scored all our points,” Strong said. “He did a great job for us. In the second quarter, we did really well. We started to knock down our shots.”

Which is when East Hampton (7-12) took some semblance of control.

A three-pointer by Jeff Pratt and a conventional three-point play by Kyle Adams on a putback and free throw made it 12-3. Morgan closed the gap on a three by Anglin, making the score 12-8, and so went the second quarter. East Hampton extending its lead only to have Morgan fight back. Anglin hit two more threes in the quarter and East Hampton’s Nate Heroux hit two of his own. A 7-2 run by the Bellringers to close out the half gave them a 28-20 lead.

Morgan trimmed its deficit to 28-24 before baskets by Adams and Loffredo put the Bellringers back up by eight. Morgan kept coming at East Hampton, however. A three by the Huskies Will Thompson was answered by Pratt. Another three by the Huskies, this time by Jake Ward, followed by a running one-hander in the lane by Anglin saw Morgan cut the lead to 35-34. After Anglin drove the lane off a nice pump fake for the go-ahead basket, East Hampton called time out.

“Anglin, he’s incredible for them,” Strong said.

A three by Marvin Gorgas put the Bellringers on top, 38-37. After a fastbreak layup by Ward gave the Huskies the lead, Adams ended the third-quarter scoring with a lay-in off a curl move underneath for a 40-39 advantage.

After Morgan took a 42-40 lead in the first minute of the fourth, both teams wasted chances on the offensive end. East Hampton’s first points of the quarter came on a putback by Adams at the 4:35 mark to tie the score.

A lay-in by Thompson gave Morgan the lead back at 44-42 with 3:07 remaining and Anglin gave the Huskies a four-point edge on a short jumper from the baseline. After an East Hampton timeout, Pratt scored on a strong move to the rim to make it 46-44, but those would be the last points the Bellringers would score and Morgan put the game away from the free-throw line.

“They did what we expected. Nothing surprised us,” Strong said. “In the second half we got tired. I don’t know how you want to say it, we weren’t helping enough. That’s why they were able to get several easy buckets. It’s frustrating that we weren’t helping each other out.”

Thompson, who scored all his points in the second half, finished with 11 for Morgan.

Pratt led East Hampton with 12 points, Adams added 11 and Loffredo had eight.

“We weren’t able to finish our plays,” Strong said. “We had a lot of good looks. We only had a couple of bad shots, but we also had some players pass up great opportunities to score. There were plenty of opportunities where we could have done more and we didn’t.”

The good news is the loss did not eliminate the Bellringers from the postseason. East Hampton has one game remaining, but it will be a difficult challenge. Valley Regional (15-4) awaits on Wednesday and it will be Senior Night for the defending Class S champions.

“It’s a big game for us on Wednesday, obviously,” Strong said. “Valley, they put a hurting on us the first game. They’re a very talented team, they’re very quick, they’re athletic. In that game, we had trouble handling pressure and making smart decisions and coming to the basketball. We’ll go through the tape and see what they’re doing so the kids see it on tape and hopefully it carries over better than some of the other tape sessions we’ve done.”

Luckenbach Recognized

If you haven’t heard of Keith Luckenbach, perhaps you’ve heard him.

In addition to being the East Hampton High School Librarian, Luckenbach also is the announcer at boys’ and girls’ basketball games.

Not just any announcer, though. No, Luchenbach does it with a flair and excitement that makes attending a game all the more fun.

Monday night was Luckenbach’s 500th game. A career that began at Morgan in the 1974-75 season, Luckenbach became the voice of East Hampton basketball in 2002.

“The JV coach and I were both in the English department at Morgan and he just asked me to do it,” Luckenbach said. “It was my very first year there and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

A fan of players and fans alike, Luckenbach isn’t limited to just the court. He’s been heard at other high school sporting events as well.

Luckenbach was presented with a plaque before the start of the game by Athletic Director Shaun Russell, complete with his trademark “Let’s Play Basketball” on it. It was supposed to be a surprise. Was it?

“I thought this might be it. I thought something might be up,” Luckenbach said, referring to an ‘accidental tip’ he received before Senior Night festivities, then added, “Tony Vecca [the school security officer] has been threatening me with this for a year or two. So, it was a surprise, but not as big a surprise as it might have been. I’m very happy about it. Absolutely.”

Don’t expect Luckenbach to change his style of announcing basketball games. He’s known only his way since the start.

“Oh yeah,” he said. “That was the bit.”

Morgan’s loss has been East Hampton’s gain.