Baldwin tops Elmont, returns to finals

Baldwin avenged its loss to Elmont in last year’s Nassau Class AA boys’ basketball championship game and will play for the county title for a sixth consecutive season.

Senior point guard Brandon Williams had 16 points and 15 assists, and senior guard Andres Gonzalez dazzled off the bench with four three-pointers to lead the No. 2 Bruins to a 60-44 victory over the third-seeded Spartans in a semifinal playoff game Monday night at SUNY-Old Westbury.

Baldwin (17-2), which outscored Elmont 16-3 in the fourth quarter, will face Uniondale (20-0) in the finals on Saturday at 5 p.m. at Hofstra. The top-seeded Knights held off No. 4 Farmingdale in the other semifinal, 59-51.

“Brandon and Andres shot about 500 jumpers each at practice the other day and were on target tonight,” Baldwin coach Darius Burton said. “I thought our defense picked up in the second half. We went to a zone press and took away some of their drive-and-dish.”

Elmont (17-2), coming off its first county championship in program history, was led offensively by juniors Marc Campbell (10 points), Daniel Alexander (nine) and Timothy Lewis (seven.)

Alexander’s trey at the end of the third quarter brought the Spartans within 44-41, but Williams and Gonzales keyed a 10-point spurt that put the Bruins in cruise control with 4:44 remaining. Gonzales opened the fourth with a long trey and capped the rally by sinking another from behind the arc after taking a no-look, behind-the-back pass from Williams.

“Brandon’s on a mission,” Burton said of Williams, who had 14 points and eight assists in a quarterfinal rout of Great Neck South. “He’s been a part of two heartbreaking defeats in the county final and wants to win it all more than anything.”

Seniors Kyle Richardson and Mykeil Tzul added seven points apiece for Baldwin, which trailed by a point after the first quarter and by three late in the second before Gonzales was inserted and promptly nailed a pair of bombs to help it to a 30-25 halftime lead.