by Justin Joseph
In a fairly lopsided contest, the Clark Rams high school varsity basketball team, steam rolled the visiting West Hempstead Rams 78-60 in their matchup Monday night.
Both teams struggled offensively to begin the game, with neither team earning a basket until West Hempstead got on the board first off a put-back layup after two minutes went by in the game. With 4:19 left in the opening quarter the game was tied 2-2 with both teams not finding any rhythm in their offense. From there Clark’s offense started to click, as they went on a 13-2 run in order to end the first stanza leading 13-4. In the second quarter Clark did not let up as they ran their offense with precision and fluidity, as well as pressuring the ball full- court on defense for the first time all season.
“We played better with defensive intensity then we have in the last couple games, [we] came full court for the first time in a while… it was our defensive intensity that really changed the momentum for us in the second quarter and then again late in the third quarter,” said Clark head coach Joe Hasbrouck.
Both teams headed into intermission with Clark leading West Hempstead 33-22. In the third quarter was when Mike Paul took over the game for Clark scoring 15 of his total 39 points on the night, which accounted for exactly half of his team’s total points. Paul put on full display his complete arsenal, hitting fancy layups in the open-court as well as hitting back to back three-pointers to put his team up by as much as over 20 points in the contest. The rest of the team scored just nine points in the quarter as they kept feeding Paul the ball when he was open and moving the ball to find an open opportunity for the entire team.
“We are about getting good shots….When we get good rhythm threes or good rhythm jump shots it’s a product really of the rest of our offense being well spaced and well put together,” Hasbrouck said.
In the fourth quarter Paul kept up the onslaught pouring in 12 more points of the team’s total 21 scored in the period. The team’s full-court pressure was too much for West Hempstead as they kept turning over the ball which lead to numerous fast break opportunities for Clark. West Hempstead never pushed the game within single digits since the first half as Clark’s offense and defense just seemed to be too much in sync.
Nick Caputo was the next leading scorer for Clark netting 15 points on the night. Jorge Grant lead West Hempstead with 21 points and was assisted by Syam Rajpatty who added 14 points going 10-12 from the charity stripe.
Clarke now moves to 2-6 on the season and will see action on Friday when they play at Friends Academy. West Hempstead, who is now 1-7 on the year, travel to face Mineola on Thursday night.
