Late surge lifts Hewlett

Three days after Hewlett shot the lights out and came within a basket of scoring 100 points in a victory at Manhasset, the Bulldogs capped the opening half of the Conference A-II boys’ basketball schedule with a gut-check 59-54 win over visiting Great Neck North on Jan. 14.

“Fortunately or unfortunately, these are the type of games we’re used to,” Hewlett head coach Bill Dubin said. “It was back-and-forth and came down to the last minute. This was the first close one we’ve won, so hopefully it’ll give us a positive boost for the rest of the season.

“We made some big shots and some key stops,” he added.

The Bulldogs (6-5 overall, 6-2 in conference play after beating Sewanhaka last Friday night) trailed by four with three minutes left but closed on an 11-2 run and took the lead for good on Ryan Steinberg’s tiebreaking three-pointer with 1:10 remaining. Steinberg, who iced the win with a pair of free throws, scored all eight of his points in the second half. “He’s been a nice role player for us all season,” Dubin said of Steinberg, whose three-pointer early in the third quarter ended an 11-point run for the Blazers and tied the game at 33.

Dimitri Baptiste had 20 points and five assists, and Avery Feldman added 18 points and 10 rebounds. Alec Ludwig paced Great Neck North with a game-high 32 points, including nine straight in the third quarter to help the visitors erase a 28-22 halftime deficit.

“He’s their best player and he shot the ball really well,” Dubin said of Ludwig, who recently surpassed the 1,000-point plateau for his career. “Our strength is our zone defense, and the plan was to stay in zone and force them to beat us from the outside,” he added. “Sometimes you have to adjust to the flow of a game and we were prepared to go man-to-man.”

Hewlett rallied from six down to tie the game at 15 by the end of the first quarter, then turned up the defensive heat in the second when it held Great Neck North to just a pair of Ludwig treys and a free throw, and led by as many as nine. 

Feldman had eight points in the third, and Richard Lyons came off the bench to add a basket and shadow Ludwig. The Blazers led 52-48 after a Tyler Zar three-pointer, but Baptiste set the stage for the late rally with two driving layups to tie it.

There was no such drama at Manhasset when a red-hot Bryan Eckerle led the way in a 98-82 victory. Eckerle poured in 35 points, going 8-for-8 from the floor in the opening half in the process, and had 11 rebounds and six assists. Baptiste (19), Feldman (19), and Joe Pasquale (10) also scored in double figures. The Bulldogs sank 17 of 20 free throws. “Our first half was as close to perfect as we can play,” Dubin noted.