Baldwin eyeing conference title

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If Baldwin can complete a season sweep of defending Nassau Class AA boys’ basketball champion Westbury this Saturday at 4 p.m., the Bruins will clinch the Conference AA-II title and the No. 1 or 2 playoff seed.

“The first time we faced Westbury, we played a great all-around game,” head coach Darius Burton said of the Bruins’ 81-55 home victory on Jan. 9. “I think our kids felt they had something to prove,” he added. “Westbury ended our conference winning streak last year and has the belt that we want. We had a lot of motivation.

“We just weren’t ourselves against Uniondale,” Burton continued. “It was great to see us rebound the way we did. Every time we’ve faced some adversity, we’ve come through.”

Baldwin was held to 38 points by Uniondale on Jan. 7. It had 36 in the opening half against Westbury before blowing the game wide open with 29 points in the third quarter. Junior Rhyjon Blackwell poured in a career-high 26, with all but 5 of those coming from behind the arc. Senior Nasim Cylin added a double-double (20 points, 10 rebounds) as the Bruins (9-6 overall, 8-0 in AA-II) produced their highest offensive output of the season through a dozen games.

“We had one of our best practices the day after the Uniondale loss,” Burton said. “We spent time talking about paying attention to detail and not being sloppy with the ball.”

Burton’s young team scored 70 in a win at East Meadow on Jan. 12, but lost 46-42 to Brentwood in the Nassau/Suffolk Challenge held at Uniondale High School the following day despite leading by five entering the fourth quarter. “Again, we held one of the best teams in Suffolk to 46 points so we still took something positive away from the game,” Burton said.

While Baldwin’s record against conference foes shows a donut in the loss column, the majority of its wins have been hard-fought. The Bruins led Plainview by just one at halftime on MLK Day before pulling away for a 51-38 triumph. Cylin had 23 points, Blackwell 15, and junior Marcus Jasmin 7. “It was an early start on the road and it took us a little while to get going,” Burton said.

Two days later, Cylin (19) led four Bruins in double figures as they held off visiting Port Washington, 68-59. The Vikings were within one in the second half before Baldwin, particularly juniors Tre Riggins (17 points) and Peter Bateman (10), made big plays down the stretch. “Port is a well-coached team and they move well without the ball,” Burton said.

Baldwin will have gone 12 days between games from its Jan. 19 blowout win over Herricks to this Wednesday night’s matchup versus Hicksville, after press time.

“We’d rather be playing but we have a bye,” Burton said last Friday. “It allowed the kids to rest a little and for me to do some scouting. We added some new sets on offense and defense that we’ll look to use during the stretch run.”