Panthers Beat Sayville in Final Seconds, 62-60

After watching a seven-point lead evaporate in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, the Miller Place varsity boys basketball team came away with a 62-60 victory over Sayville after Kevin Leyden hit two clutch free throws to break a tie game with 11 seconds left.

Sayville’s (0-4) Sean Fullam took a jump shot as time ticked away, but it bounced off the rim to seal an exciting victory for the Panthers (2-3). Miller Place’s Jack Hepburn led his team with 17 points while Steve Jackolski scored 15 points, which included some key baskets late in the game.

“I think we needed this win because a bunch of our losses have been overtime games and close games,” said Miller Place coach Brian Sztabnik. “The free throws we made at the end show that we’re maturing as a team. Sayville's a team that has played everyone closely and their record doesn’t show how good they really are.”

An undersized Panther team had trouble containing Sayville’s big center Rich Geiger as he had 21 points in the game and was able to have his way inside for much of the contest. With the score tied at 60 with 11 seconds left, however, Leyden was able to draw a foul on Geiger and hit two free throws to give the Panthers the lead again.

“We wanted to full front Geiger, but the dangerous part about that is we’ll give up the offensive rebound,” Sztabnik said. “We got to him on the block, he got offensive rebounds, but I feel like he just did a little bit of everything."

Coming off the last-minute victory, the Panthers will look to keep winning when they face Harborfields Jan. 18 at 4:30 p.m. Coach Sztabnik said he would like to see better rebounding from his team next time out.

“We have to be better on the boards and get more points down the stretch,” he said. “We had a couple of costly turnovers that made this game closer than it should’ve been.”