Lawrence Stuns Undefeated South Side, 74-73

The last time the Golden Tornadoes played South Side in January, they squandered a six-point fourth-quarter lead and lost a . This time around, Lawrence withstood a late fourth-quarter surge on Tuesday night to knock off the previously undefeated Cyclones, 74-73, in Rockville Centre.

Lawrence coach Pete Linderman said he was pleased with his team’s performance, especially later in the game, and called it a “great program win.”

“We did what we needed to do. We’ve been building toward this all season,” he said. “We had a bitter taste in our mouth after the first game. This is why we all love sports.”

South Side (10-1) struggled early, falling behind 7-0 to start the game, and were down as many as ten midway through the first quarter in front of a raucous home crowd. South Side got into a offensive rhythm in the second quarter, out-scoring the Golden Tornadoes 17-13, and finished the half on a 6-0 run to close within three at 33-30.

Cyclones coach Gerry D’Angelo said he believes that the Senior Night crowd may have excited his team in the early going.

“We played too fast when we came out. At that first timeout [after the 7-0 run], I just reminded them that it was a 32-minute game,” he said. “I wanted them to slow down, get into their half-court set and make better decisions. We won by four the first game, so in both matchups either team had opportunities, they just did some better things this time.”

South Side got its first lead midway through the third quarter after junior Kevin Coyle capped a 7-0 run with one of his three 3-pointers with 4:34 remaining. The lead changed hands five more times until Lawrence’s Ahmad Shamseldin scored two of his nine points with a floater over the outstretched hands of junior Ryan Spadaford.

Lawrence, running its usual up tempo style, struggled with consistency at times.  Despite occasionally losing its momentum, the Golden Tornadoes still had three scorers in double figures, led by Eddie Robinson’s 26 points and Samson Bialostok’s 19 points and 7 rebounds.

“We try to keep that pace up all the time. In an environment like this, with the intensity we bring, it’s hard to maintain,” Linderman said. “We have little lulls every now and then, but it’s just something you have to deal with.”

D’Angelo said his team got back to playing its game defensively in the second half, though despite Spadaford’s point output, he wasn’t pleased with his star junior’s game. Spadaford led the team with 26 points.

“After halftime we did a better job contesting threes, and attacking their pressure defense – we forced them to switch to a 2-3 zone in the fourth,” he said. “Spadaford has had better games, we have higher expectations, but Coyle shot the ball well and Darren [Nickelson] got it going in the second half [scoring ten of his 16].”

The Golden Tornadoes will travel to Bethpage on Friday at 6:30 p.m. and will welcome Plainedge on Monday at 6:15 p.m. If the team wins both games, combined with a South Side loss on Friday to Sewanhaka, the Golden Tornadoes will share the Conference A-II title with South Side.