The Baldwin Bruins were able to come away with a 59-49 victory over Massapequa high school at Farmingdale State College Sunday night to advance to the Nassau Class AA Championship next Sunday at Nassau Coliseum.
Paul Buonagulo, for Massapequa, led all scorers with 15 points and was assisted by running mate Thomas Spero, who had 11 points, as the only scorers for the Chiefs in double-figures. Baldwin showed off their balanced attack by having four players in double-digits led by Kamani Jones with 14 and Lance Henry, who poured in 13 points of his own.
Both teams played well coming out the gate with Baldwin grabbing an early 10-6 lead five minutes into the contest. Massapequa opened up the game playing a 2-3 zone defense which was pivotal in them staying in the game early on, forcing the Bruins to shoot perimeter jumpers that were not consistently falling. ”They handled it very well… we couldn’t get frustrated [I] felt my kids kept their composure,” said head coach of Baldwin Darius Burton. Baldwin was able to find the bottom of the net by attacking the rim and knocking down both their free throws in the quarter to win the period 16-11.
In the second quarter Baldwin got rolling as they poured in 22 points knocking down five three-pointers in comparison to the Chiefs 13point outing. Jones netted six points in the stanza for the Bruins as they heading into the intermission leading 33-29.
Coming out of the halftime break Massapequa would show their grit as they came back in the third quarter determined defensively and held the high-flying Bruins to just eight points in the stanza. Massapequa began to pressure the ball more and force Baldwin into turnovers and kept the ball away from their dynamic offense. Massapequa headed into the fourth quarter leading 42-41and had the momentum in their favor. “Going into the fourth [quarter] down one I told them we got eight minutes, you don’t want to go home, you want to play in the Colisuem[and play] for the national county championship,” Burton said.
In the final quarter, it was all Baldwin, as both Lance and Trevan Biackett each would have six points in the final stanza to lead their team to a 18-7 final quarter to walk off with a victory and head to another championship match on Sunday against Uniondale high school.
“We had to defend, we held a very tough Massapequa team to 49 points,” Burton said.
For Massapequa their season is over, but newly crowned champions of section eight the Baldwin Bruins head to the Nassau Coliseum in order to take on Uniondale high school for the county championship this Sunday night.
“ Defense is our best offense we have been paying great defense all season holding teams to 47 points per game, if we want a county championship we have to have that refuse to lose mentality and find a way to win.”
