Second-half run lifts Wantagh over Kennedy

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Last Friday night’s Wantagh-Kennedy boys’ basketball game took on added significance with both teams seeking their first Conference A-1 victory.

The Warriors (3-8) were the ones able to hit the win column paced by a 9-0 third quarter run and clutch plays down the stretch in a 65-53 win to improve to 1-3 in conference play. The Cougars dropped their sixth in a row and fell to 3-8 and 0-4 in conference.

After an evenly matched first half that saw Kennedy enter the halftime break up 26-24, Wantagh began to take control in the third quarter going up 35-28 after a Billy Pappas basket capped the 9-0 spurt. Kennedy hung tough, however, and only trailed 51-47 late in the fourth quarter before the Warriors outscored the Cougars 14-6 to ice to game.

“We’ve been in tight games all season so we know if we play the game that we know we can play, we can play against almost anybody,” Wantagh head coach Keith Hunter said. “We knew that if they started hitting outside shots and getting hot from three-point range that that would keep them in the game. So our goal was to keep them from getting hot and in the second half once we started seeing it trail off and they weren’t hitting anything outside, that was when we took it from them.”

Both teams posted double digits in points in every quarter.

“We played tough and it just didn’t go our way,” Kennedy assistant coach Tim Steimer said. “We played hard.”

Kennedy was led offensively by senior forward Eric Pauly’s 19 points, and junior guard James Ferry’s 10. Senior center Jake Silverman chipped in with eight points, all in the third quarter, that helped keep the Cougars in the game.

“He played well down the stretch,” Steimer said of Silverman. “He has been doing the right things on and off the court.”

Wantagh had four players in double figures, including 16 points each from Evan Goldberg and Patrick Kissane. Steven Becker also chipped in with 12 and Pappas scored 10, which included some key second-half baskets including a fourth-quarter trey that extended the lead to 49-43.

“He’s been phenomenal for us,” Hunter said of Pappas. “He’s been great for us inside and he hit a key outside three.”

The Cougars, who earned non-conference wins over Plainedge, Mepham and Malverne in December, will try to even the season series when they host a rematch with Wantagh on Feb. 6 at 7 p.m.

The win over Kennedy snapped a four-game losing streak and marked Wantagh’s first victory since a 48-44 triumph at Lynbrook on Dec. 20. After facing Conference A-1 leader Great Neck South, the Warriors will travel to second-place Jericho this Friday for a 7 p.m. tipoff.

“We are 1-3 [in the conference] but, we don’t feel like a 1-3 team,” Hunter said.  “We need to keep playing like a team and believing we can win.”