St. Mary's boys basketball's Hank Williams Jr., Justin Mompoint key 50-point victory
St. Mary's Hank Williams Jr. rises for a three-point shot over Beach Channel defenders during a non-league basketball game at St. Mary's High School in Manhasset on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. Credit: Derrick Dingle
The final buzzer sounded at St. Mary’s Brother Kenneth Roberts gymnasium Saturday afternoon. St. Mary’s boys basketball had just beaten Beach Channel by 50 points, 98-48, in a game that never held a doubt.
But first-year head coach Paul Tricario had set a “defensive points goal,” and it wasn’t met. That meant sprinting the full length of the court, there and back, eight times.
“We’re trying to bring this to a point where it’s respectable,” Tricario said. “We have to enforce the culture we were used to and brought up in, and we are trying to instill that in this group now.”
After three sets, Tricarico asked for the gym to be cleared. Then the running began again.
“We’re using basketball as a tool to teach them life lessons,” Tricarico said. “I think that’s the big thing here … They can use these things to hold themselves accountable forever and set goals they want to achieve and have targets in life.”
It’s a process both Tricarico and assistant coach Jimmy Frauenberg underwent as basketball players for coach Tim Cluess when they were athletes themselves at St. Mary’s, graduating in 2002 and 1999, respectively. Both Tricario and Frauenberg said they’ve already seen positive results.
“The attitude, the effort, the expectation and the attention to detail has changed,” Frauenberg said. “Meaning that, where they came in as kind of a separate entity, they’re all forming into one and learning to play together.”
Goals were set, and accountability became paramount when those goals were not met.
“If it takes running it out of us, that’s completely fine with the coaches and it’s fine with us,” junior Hank Williams Jr. said. “We know what we can do, we know what we’re trying to strive for in the future.”
“It’s been great,” senior Myles Herbert said. “They put in a lot of time and hard work into us.”
Herbert achieved a goal of his own Friday night against St. John the Baptist, crossing the 1,000-point mark with a 20-point game. He added 11 points, five rebounds and five assists Saturday.
“It felt amazing,” Herbert said. “I didn’t really expect to get to 1000. It’s a great milestone I worked very hard for.”
Williams Jr. hit five three-pointers in the first quarter and totaled 23 points, only second to senior Justin Mompoint’s game-high 26 points. All but 11 of the team’s 36 field goals came off assists.
It shows growth, from the group that began the season 0-3 to the team that is now 9-5.
“I think we came into the season too lackadaisical, thinking we were already going to win when we didn’t win anything,” Williams Jr. said. “The first three games were a wake-up call … We still have our end-of-the-season goal, which is to bring a championship to St. Mary’s.
"I think, after a few long conversations and some hard practices, everyone is starting to fit into place.”
Michael Sicoli covers high school sports for Newsday. He graduated from Quinnipiac in 2022 and left with a master’s degree in sports journalism in 2023.
