The East Rockaway boys’ basketball team dominated its game against West Hempstead from the opening tip to the final whistle, as the team walked away with a 64-41 victory last Saturday.
The main catalyst for the impressive victory was East Rockaway’s suffocating defense, which generated countless turnovers throughout the game. Head coach Paul Collins was satisfied with the effort the boys but forth considering the recent blunders and complications.
“I talk about buzzing a lot,” Collins said. “We buzzed today for the first time in a long time, where we did make our mistakes, but buzzing on D forced a lot of turnovers and made it easier to score.
One of central cogs in this stifling defense was junior John Giannotti, who was the frontline in the Rocks’ full court press, as he had 5 steals on the afternoon. He had 10 points as well, with a good portion coming from capitalizing on these forced turnovers. Senior Aiden Green was the focal point of the offensive game plan and he capitalized on this immense volume as he had 27 points, scoring from all three levels. Junior Tyler Hyland had 9 points and senior Joseph Lazazzaro had 8, as both players had strong takes within the natural flow of the offense.
What was maybe most impressive about the Rocks’ victory was how well they managed the game following a 20-6 first-quarter margin, as the lead never deviated from there and they were able to mitigate any runs by the Rams. Fifty five of the 64 points scored by the Rocks came from within the arc, as they only connected on three 3-pointers, which clearly was a byproduct of the game plan as they didn’t attempt all that many jumpers.