Lynbrook battles for top spot

The Lynbrook boys’ basketball team is in a three-team race for the Conference A-4 title as the season approaches its final weeks.
The Owls entered the week second in the standings with a 6-2 mark (11-4 overall), one game behind first-place Floral Park and a half-game up on Plainedge for third. Lynbrook and Floral Park have four games remaining, while Plainedge has five.
Lynbrook had an opportunity to control its own destiny for a second conference title in three full seasons but was edged by Floral Park 53-52 on Jan. 19. The teams split the season series after the Owls escaped with a 54-52 victory on Dec. 15 thanks to Peter Donnarumma’s 3-pointer with 10 seconds left and a key free throw by leading scorer Eli Sherman-Murphy that iced the game.
“The Floral Park game was a game that we expected, down to the last possession,” head coach Jamie Adams said. “We had the ball with four seconds left with an opportunity to win.”
Lynbrook rebounded with a 75-47 win over Mineola last Saturday to officially clinch a playoff spot. The Owls will visit Plainedge on Friday in hopes of avenging an 83-58 loss on Dec. 23, when they got outscored 54-26 in the second half.

“They’re a high-volume team,” coach Jamie Adams said. “They want to get up as many shots as they can [and] they want to create opportunities, so that’ll be a test for us.”
The Red Devils and Knights face each other on Feb. 2 in a game that will impact the standings.
The Owls’ success this season can be traced to a balanced scoring attack in which seven different players are averaging better than six points a game, and a stifling defense that has surrendered a conference-low 45 points a contest. Offensively, six players have been Lynbrook’s top scorer in a game.
“It’s difficult to gameplan for that because you never know who it’s going to be,” Adams said about his depth. “The great thing about it is their energy and effort is never motivated by their playing time.”
It also helps to have 6-foot-5 forwards Haris Cekic and Richard Correa-Lampasona on the floor who can both score and rebound and 6-foot-4 junior Will Krapf on the bench. Cekic is averaging around nine rebounds a game and is one of the team leaders, while Correa-Lampasona’s production is a result of his athleticism.
Sherman-Murphy is averaging 11.5 points a game, four points better than last winter’s abbreviated eight-game schedule. He benefited greatly from the minutes he received during that time and helped the Owls go 8-0.

“He’s one of the best kids I’ve ever coached,” Adams said. “He wants to do whatever it takes to win.”
Junior Sean O’Donovan (9.6 ppg) is an energetic guard who can be counted on for the key basket and Donnarumma (7.1) is a “smart player” who can shoot and rebound. Junior Brian Sugrue and senior Sean Lengyel have both provided sparks off the bench and are 3-point threats.