Suffolk County Class AA Quarterfinals

The quarterfinal round of the Suffolk County Class AA playoffs got underway on Tuesday and NYCHoops.net checked out one side of the bracket. It was a battle of NYCHoops.net ranked teams versus the unranked. First up was #9 ranked Central Islip hosting Brentwood followed by #3 ranked Half Hollow Hills East hosting Ward Melville.

CENTRAL ISLIP, NY – There was a lot on the line in this game. First and foremost was advancing to the semifinal round but secondly, it was a battle between neighboring towns. The C.I. Musketeers have had a pretty consistent record throughout the season while the Indians have encountered some bumps in the road.

Brentwood head coach Anthony Jimenez attributed most of his team inconsistency with its youth but after pulling off the upset win against Central Islip, he said his team was “peeking at just the right time” plus he had a plan. “We knew that they were a very quick, exciting up-tempo type team so what we wanted to do is see if we could take the wind out of their sails and slow them up a little bit.”

That deceleration took longer than expected as 5’11” Angel Jimenez ‘18 jumped out quick, fast and in a hurry giving Central Islip an early 12 – 4 lead. 6’5” Bryce Harris ‘20 countered for Brentwood as he and 5’10” Kenny Lazo ‘20 narrowed the gap to two-points before 5’8” Ty-Shon Pannell ‘20 drained a three-ball giving the Musketeers a 5-point advantage at the end of the first quarter.

6’7” Zed Key ‘20, who was absent from most of the first quarter due to “internal issues” began dominating in the paint for the Indians with help from 6’1” Jordan Riley 21. Brentwood only managed to slightly outscore C.I. in the second quarter and still trailed 34 – 31 at the half.

During the half, Coach Jimenez said he had to tweak the game plan. “We tried slowing them up with a man [to-man defense] but they got inside us a few times and got some easy buckets, so we had to adjust to a little bit of a zone to take away the middle for them which work out to our favor.”

In the third quarter, Brentwood began to make inroads as the duo of Key and Harris was crankin’ on all cylinders. 6’2” Darryan Fuentes ‘18 pretty much powered the Musketeers in the third but he alone would be no match for team Brentwood. With 5:30 remaining in the third quarter, Lazo drove down the lane to tie the game at 40. Central Islip fought back and even regained the lead briefly as Jimenez found the bottom of the rim, but the momentum was clearly swaying in Brentwood’s favor.

To start the final quarter, the Indians had a one-point lead. That lead grew to 4 points as Harris hit a free throw and Key scored a put back. An and-1 by 6’5” Javal Staton ‘18 along with a trey by Fuentes put the Musketeers ahead by a point but that represented C.I.’s final run and their last lead.

There was only two minutes left to play and Brentwood had not only regained its lead but had its largest lead at 8-points. To add insult to injury as time ran out, on the inbound as Jimenez let the ball roll up court on its own so that the clock would not start, Lazo pilfered the rock from him to score Brentwood’s final uncontested bucket.

“This game was huge,” said Harris. “Neighboring towns, the rivalry. We’ve never played in this gym and we haven’t played C.I. in fourteen years.”

Key was high man for Brentwood with 23 points with Harris and Riley netting 18 points and 15 points respectively. Jimenez led Central Islip with 21 points with Fuentes contributing 17 points.

DIX HILLS, NY – Although Half Hollow Hills East was the home team, if you closed your eyes you’d think you were in East Setauket as the Ward Melville contingent was as loud and proud as ever. That didn’t stop the Thunderbirds from taking care of business as Hills East burst out front with a 10 – 2 run spearheaded by Ward Melville fan’s public enemy #1 Savion Lewis ‘18.

The Patriots kept the game interesting in the first quarter primarily due to the exploits of 6’8” Alex Sorbel ‘18 and 5’9” sharpshooter Brendan Martin ‘18 but still trailed Hills East by 5 as the warm-up quarter concluded.

The strategy according to Thunderbird’s head coach Pete Basel was defend the three and to contain Sorbel. “The big guy’s tough. He’s going to Middlebury, a high D-3 program. He’s got some good back to the basket moves. The plan was to front him and play off our help side defense.”

Lewis only had 6-points in the first quarter but the Patriots fans, who frequently chanted “underrated” at the Quinnipiac bound guard, inadvertently added fuel to his fire according to Lewis as he promptly dropped 18 of his game high 40 points in the second quarter. “I love when crowds do that,” said Lewis. “It gets me mad. It’s a lot more motivation. They think they’re bringing me down but they’re really not, so I let them talk.”

Ward Melville had a good second half with Sorbel getting hard earned buckets in the paint along with perimeter shooting from 6’3” Ray Grabowski ‘19 and 6’1” Rick Carbone ‘18. The Patriots even closed the game to a point midway through the quarter, but Lewis closed out the half on a tear and Ward Melville was down 38 – 31 at the midway point.

Julien Crittendon ‘18, who scored 21 points total, had a strong third quarter for Hills East that helped keep the #1 seed up by as much as 12 points. Garbone and Robert Soto offered some resistance for the Patriots but a 3-ball by the senior to end the quarter increased the Thunderbirds lead to 15 as the final quarter got underway.

Sorbel has his strongest quarter scoring 14 of his 30 points but Ward Melville was like a hamster on a wheel. Every Patriots bucket was countered by an Indians bucket and then some. Hills East’s lead grew as large as 18 points with 6:15 left to play. To their credit, the Patriot whittled it down to 9 points with a minute left in regulation, but it was too little too late.

Lewis said that being in the playoffs this year is different from last year. “It is a lot of pressure. It’s definitely different than last year because last year we were underdogs and this year we’re number one, so we have to live up to the ranking. All we wanna do is get to where we left off last year.”