by Justin Joseph
It was a tale of two different halves Thursday night, as Seaford high school pulled off an astonishing come from behind victory over Clarke high school 66-51 in front of their home crowd.
Clarke came out on fire in the first quarter leading by as much as 15-2 as the visiting team. They looked like the fresher, tougher, and more athletic team on both sides of the floor in the beginning of the contest. Mike Paul for Clarke was off to his usual hot start scoring eight of his points in the first stanza alone. At the end of the first quarter, Clarke led the contest 18-11, but the game didn’t look nearly as close. In the second quarter Clarke extended their lead to 26-12 before Seaford cut the deficit to trail 35-27 at the half.
In the third quarter it was Seaford that looked like the aggressor, as they came out firing on all cylinders, knocking down shots from everywhere. While their offense definitely looked more fluid and energetic in the second half, it was their defense that served as the catalyst in order to ignite their offense. “ We went into a press ,we did a 1-2-2 press and we just stepped up the defense, and that was the difference,” said Seaford head coach Ralph Rossetti. In the second half we made more shots, and we were able to make turnovers because our defense became a better offense for us,” Rosetti said. Clarke at one point turned the ball over on five straight possessions, which allowed for Seaford to not only get back in the game, but take a double-digit lead to enter the last quarter of play.
Leading 53-43 entering the last stanza, Seaford didn’t stop their press defense that enabled them to get back into the contest. Holding Clarke to just eight points in the third quarter was not fluke, as they followed it up again only allowing eight points in the fourth quarter as well. Majority of Seaford’s points was in the open court after they forced turnovers and got out into transition to score. During a timeout coach Joe Hasbrouck of Clarke yelled at his team for their lackadaisical play and them not running back on defense. His cries would be a little too late as his team dropped their road contest to fall to 3-9 on the year. Mike Paul led them in scoring with 20 points.
The leading scorers for Seaford were Jason Rebando and Joe Crir each with 19 points. Seaford moves to 5-6 with this win and gained confidence from their performance. “ [They are ] very tough, they don’t quit…. They could have been out of this from the beginning… but the kids don’t quit you got to give them a lot of credit,” Rosetti said on his team’s performance.
