Brentwood Beats Elmont Inside-Out
BRENTWOOD, NY – It was a day of reckoning on Thursday for two teams who both suffered losses in their previous games. The NYCHoops.net #7 Long Island ranked Brentwood Indians were rebounding from a come-from behind-loss to Half Hollow Hills East while the # 9 ranked Elmont Spartans were beaten soundly by Chaminade.
The winner of this game would be the team that left their previous loss in the rearview mirror and came together as a team. It would be an intensified Brentwood that came out the box, punishing Elmont down low en route to an emphatic 81 – 58 victory while handing the Spartans its second loss.
The keys to the win against Elmont was the play in the paint by the Indian’s bigs Zed Key ’20 and 6’5” Bryce Harris ’20. “We still have to remind them what our identity is,” said Brentwood Head Coach Anthony Jimenez of his young sophomore and junior heavy squad. “When we played Hills East last week, we went to Zed, we went to Bryce. They were able to establish themselves then we completely got away from that.” Jimenez admitted his squad briefly got away from its bread and butter in the second half versus Elmont but recouped earlier.
In the first quarter, the Indians pounded Elmont down low with Keys and Harris scoring more than half of the Indians first half points. Both players put down massive dunks in transition that pumped up the hometown crowd while shifting the momentum in Brentwood’s favor.
“The coach’s strategy was to power them down low,” said Indian’s point guard Kenny Lazo ‘20. “Our bigs have a great advantage over their bigs and we just wanted to run them up and down the court.”
While Brentwood’s game plan was working, Elmont did not go down quietly. In fact, the undersized squad remained in striking range throughout the half as they got up and down the court quickly. Perimeter shooting by Victor Olawoye ’18 and Jarell Pierre-Louis were the primary assets for the Spartans who even with a lack of second shot opportunities had them trailing by 5 points at the end of the first quarter.
That dynamic skewed even further in Brentwood’s favor in the second quarter as Key and Harris went to work while only William Cook had a hot hand for the Spartans. That and pour free-throw shooting by Elmont tripled their deficit as the half ended. Down 41 – 26 to start the second half, the Spartans needed to adjust its strategy to get back into the game.
Key said that he was keenly aware of what happened to cause Brentwood to blow a lead versus Hills East and reminded his teammates. “We have to come out with energy,” said Key. “Don’t come out flat at the half because the game against Hills East we came out really flat.”
In the third quarter, Key’s pep talk seemed to grow roots as the Indians increased its lead to 21 points by the end of the third but then there was energy dropped off. Partly due to a zone defense implemented by Elmont to slow them down and partly due to fatigue.
Suddenly the Spartans began to make inroads as Jordan Lawson got hot from the arc along with points in transition by Pierre-Louis and Ismael Astasie. Elmont managed to chip the Indian advantage down to 14 points with 5:15 left in regulation as Coach Jimenez gave Key and Harris a breather.
It was then that Lazo came up big, hitting clutch shots both from long range and by attacking the rim in transition. “We needed to let the game come to us,” said Lazo. Thirteen fourth-quarter point from the sophomore along with 7 points from Josh Jenkins ’18 soon bumped the Indians lead back to 20 points with 3-minute left in regulation and Elmont was unable to recover.
Key scored a game high 28 points with Harris and Lazo scoring 16 points and 14 points respectively. Pierre-Louis was leading scorer for Elmont with 12 points with no other players scoring in double-digits.
