Boys basketball: Hungry as ever, Spencer Mayfield returns with win No. 400 at White Plains

WHITE PLAINS - The first two days this week, Spencer Mayfield paced around his house. His two grown children were home working, so they had to tell their dad to keep it down.

Mayfield just didn't know what else to do. He was in the final days of a COVID-19 quarantine and missing White Plains' first two practices since before Christmas. Watching video wasn't enough.

"I wanted them to FaceTime me, but they wouldn't do it," Mayfield said of his players and coaches. "They told me I'm corny."

He's also been a winner, which was proven once again when Mayfield returned to his team and the Tigers returned to the court Thursday.

They scratched off some early rust to top Port Chester 69-48 and earn Mayfield his 400th win with the program and 465th overall.

"Number 400 at White Plains is meaningful because of all the great players I've coached," said Mayfield, who won 65 games in five seasons at Tenafly (N.J.) High School before spending the last 29 seasons at White Plains. "It's all about them. They are their wins. I just enjoyed coaching those guys in the past and I really enjoy coaching this group."

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But those opportunities have been rare since the team's Dec. 22 win over Scarsdale. Mayfield and a few players tested positive over the holiday break, so the team went on pause.

Mayfield still had two more days in his quarantine when the Tigers resumed workouts Monday.

"He was calling me a lot," said assistant coach Spencer Smith, a 2007 graduate who played for Mayfield. "I was here running the practices. I wanted it to be perfect, but of course it wasn't perfect. I didn't want to get him upset at home."

Mayfield then needed to wait one extra day after White Plains canceled school Wednesday due to the ice storm. Early in the game on Thursday, the Tigers looked very much like a team ending a long layoff, but their defensive intensity improved late in the second quarter and they took over a close game against the Rams.

At one point, White Plains scored 15 straight points.

"Everybody is in the same boat, but we have to get into a rhythm," said Mayfield, a 1976 graduate of Nyack High School and still a resident of Rockland County. "We have a young team. They came in very confident, but it was like, 'Welcome to AA basketball. This isn't the summer anymore.' So we've gone through some growing pains, but I think we're going to be good."

Mayfield, who Smith called "the staple of the program," said he still finds himself motivated by the quest for improvement. Having two weeks away from the team showed him just how much coaching still means after 34 years, two state titles and 730 games on the sideline.

"I really did miss it and I still have the passion," he said. "This is what I want to do. I still really want to be a basketball coach."

Player of the game

Menzy Carden, White Plains. The junior scored a game-high 17 points to go with nine rebounds and three steals.

By the numbers

White Plains (3-6) — Shane Washington had 12 points, three assists and three steals and Logan McCormick added eight points. Eli Pierre had four points and also had eight rebounds and five steals. ... The Tigers' bench outscored Port Chester 22-0.

Port Chester (1-6) — Brandon Nieto and Alec Pineda had 14 points apiece for the Rams. Jorge Luis Nieto added 10 points and grabbed 15 rebounds. Tyler Heckel contributed eight point and Danny Hinz had eight rebounds.

Quotable

"Everybody who has come here and gone to the next level, whether it's pro or college, they've been prepared for any situation," Smith said of Mayfield, a 2016 inductee into the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame.. "We're just really prepared when we leave this program. Whether you played 30 minutes a game or you didn't play at all, you're ready for what comes next."

Josh Thomson is the Sports Editor for The Journal News and Poughkeepsie Journal. He can be reached by e-mail at jthomson@lohud.com, on Twitter at @lohudinsider, and on Instagram at @lohudinsider.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Spencer Mayfield earned his 400th win with White Plains basketball