South Side in driver's seat

South Side broke a tie with visiting Hewlett in the final 90 seconds last Friday and squeaked out a 56-52 decision to open the second half of the Nassau Conference A-II boys’ basketball season.

The Cyclones, who improved to 8-0 in A-II as they seek a fourth consecutive conference title, were paced by senior Alex Sorensen’s 23 points and eight rebounds. He hit eight field goals, including three from behind the arc, and crept closer to the program’s all-time scoring mark of 1,296 points held by 2001 graduate James Hurt.

“Alex is getting doubled just about every possession,” said South Side head coach Jerry D’Angelo, who noted the four-year starter is approaching 1,150 career points. “He’s having a big year,” he added. “He ended the Hewlett game really strong with 10 points in the fourth quarter.”

It was the 12th straight game to start the season that Sorensen scored at least 20 points. His streak of such performances ended last Saturday afternoon when he managed 16 in a 75-64 loss to Copiague as part of the fourth annual Nassau-Suffolk Challenge hosted by Uniondale. He’s averaging 24.8 points through 13 games.

“Copiague’s a high-end team and we didn’t execute as well as we can,” D’Angelo said. “It was a good test and showed us some things we need to work on. We spotted them a 17-point lead and had nine turnovers in the first quarter. Maybe a little bit was because of the wear-and-tear from the Hewlett game, but I don’t want to use that as an excuse.”

Junior Brandon Greyson, who scored a season-high 16 against Copiague, had nine points and three assists in the victory over Hewlett, while senior Matt Boranian added six points and eight rebounds. “Brandon’s getting a lot of minutes off the bench and just put together strong back-to-back games,” D’Angelo said of Greyson, a key part of the backcourt led by starters Sorensen and fellow seniors Matt DiLuccio and John O’Brien.

Last Friday signaled the beginning of the second trip around the A-II schedule for the Cyclones (9-4 overall), who hold a one-game lead over Roslyn, a team they blew out by 35 on Jan. 5, and a three-game lead over Hewlett with a series sweep in the bank.

“Hewlett’s come a long way since we saw them in the conference opener,” D’Angelo added. “They always play hard. We had some defensive lapses they took advantage of, and we found ourselves tied with a minute-and-a-half left.”

The loss to Copiague snapped South Side’s five-game winning streak that began with a season-high 84-point effort against Roslyn. Sorensen (21), Boranian (17), junior Ryan Prendergast (11) and senior Paul Lonergan (10) all scored in double figures against the Bulldogs, who host the rematch on Jan. 29.

“We played extremely well against Roslyn and they clearly weren’t at their best that night,” D’Angelo said. “We still have a long way to go before we can feel that we’ve lock everything up.”