Boys basketball team bows to Southold: Strong defense against league powerhouse

The Shelter Island boys basketball team suffered a tough loss at home on Tuesday, Jan. 27. Going up against the Southold Settlers, the Islanders came up short at the final buzzer, 57-45.

There were bright spots for Shelter Island, Coach Michael (Zack) Mundy said after the game, especially the team having its best defensive game of the season. He noted that Southold currently is the second-best team in the league and always a powerhouse East End team.

The Islanders employed an aggressive zone defense switching from 2-3 to 3-2 to 1-2-2 zones to stop the Settlers. The switch to zone, Coach Mundy said, was because “our man defense was too slow in rotation. We’ve been working hard on the zone, and it’s working.” The coach said it was a good sign for this year’s remaining games and something to build on for next season.

Evan Weslek, who this month joined the short list of greatest athletes to ever wear a Shelter Island uniform by scoring 1,000 points in a career, was back in action Tuesday, putting 28 points on the board. Weslek had missed the last game with an injury but was right back in the middle of the action Tuesday.

Other standouts for the Islanders were Ari Waife, who had a good game down low, scoring 11 points and hitting the boards on both ends of the court. 

For the Settlers, Kyan Olsen had 21 points and Travis Sepenoski put up 13.