Even the best of friends can argue during a basketball game.
That’s exactly what Greenport High School seniors Taiquan Brumsey and Nelson Shedrick did at halftime of their Suffolk County League VIII boys basketball game against Southold on Friday night.
“We were arguing with each other,” Shedrick said. “We both want the ball. We just hugged it out in the locker room. We need to win this game and just hustle.”
Added Brumsey: “I feel like it made us better, made a strong as a team. We came out, played hard.”
After putting their differences aside, the teammates focused their energy elsewhere — back on the basketball court in the second half — and led the Porters to a 42-37 victory over their archrivals.
“They both are competitive. They both want to win. Those two are our main scorers,” Greenport head coach Justin Moore said. “Being best friends, they come down on each other, but they were able to shake it off and put it all behind them. We were able pull out the win. So, we’ll take it.”
Neither players sank a field goal in the opening half. Brumsey put away three foul shots, Shedrick one.
It was a different story over the final 16 minutes, as Shedrick pumped in 15 of his 16 points, while Brumsey added 13 to finish with 16 against Southold (2-2, 1-2).
Brumsey missed the first two games of the season, recovering from an ankle injury.
“This is only my second game back,” he said. “My last game, I only played around 12, 14 minutes. I just had to get into a groove.”
The Porters (4-0, 3-0) found their groove as they went on a 20-0 spurt that began late in the second quarter and ended with Southold sophomore forward Kyan Olsen’s three-point basket 46 seconds into the final period.
With Greenport trailing 14-7 in the second quarter, Shedrick canned a free throw and Jeremiah Smith hit a trey to close the gap to 14 11 at intermission. Greenport turned the game on its head in the third behind a 13-0 run to grab a 24-14 advantage. Brumsey and Shedrick combined to score 12 of those points, while Matt Malinowski (five points) added a foul shot. “We just played amazing defense,” Shedrick said. “Coach said, ‘Hustle in the third quarter wins games.’” While no offensive rebound totals were available after the game, the Porters were able to get off two, three and even four shots on several possessions and notched 17 field goal attempts in the period.
On the other end of the court, the Settlers were limited to six shots in the quarter while committing seven turnovers“If you don’t score any points in one quarter, it’s hard to win a game, especially against a good team,” said Southold head coach Will Fujita. “We shot ourselves in the foot a little bit there. We know what we need to work on. Got to be able to make adjustments at halftime. That’s completely on me.”