The Miller Place basketball team might have had a slightly higher seed and home court advantage, but they had to come back and prove their mettle to advance in the playoffs on Tuesday night.
Miller Place won a thriller of a game against Sayville 56-55 in a game that was as close as the score indicates. The Panthers had nothing going right for them in the early going as they quickly fell behind 11-0. Sayville was proving to be big under the basket and the intensity of the game could be felt right away.
In the first quarter alone, there were a number of physical plays and with the crowd chanting defense the entire time and players diving across the floor the feel of a high stake's playoff game was certainly in the building.
Miller Place couldn't seem to make a dent from that early hole that grew to 16-5, but back-to-back three-point plays, the latter coming on the traditional basket and a foul, watched them close the gap to just five points.
The Panthers came out of the locker room with the same intensity but this time their shots were falling, defensively they were now in lock down mode. They won the 3rd quarter 22-15 and then held Sayville to just 12 4th quarter points. The game was a one basket game with just seconds to go when Miller Place's Matt Cirrito nailed a late free throw to seal the victory and send Miller Place to the next round.
Nick Frusco led the scoring with 22 points and three from beyond the arc. Mike Biondi had an important 13, while Cirrito added 8 including that key free throw. Ryan Khezri had 7 points and Dylan Riegel chipped in 6, including a huge three pointer with under 2 minutes to play.
The Panthers have not made the playoffs since 2020 but will not move on to play top seeded Southampton this Wednesday night at Longwood High School.