By TONY BELLISSIMO
Senior Lorenzo Pitts notched 13 points, while juniors John Isola and Leroy Poole added 12 and 10, respectively, as the Marines ran their win streak to three games and improved to 3-2 in conference play and 6-4 overall.
We still have a long way to go, but we'll get better, Coach Wandy Williams said after the game. I said from the start that this team would be much improved in the second half of the season. I don't have a feel for us yet. We've played well in spurts, but we haven't been able to put together a full game.
If the Marines have yet to play a solid 32 minutes, they're getting very close. In playing three games in four days last week, they outscored their opponents by a combined 248-161.
We had a couple of rough games earlier in the season that we've been able to learn from, Williams said. This was a big week for us because we won three games we were supposed to win.
The victory over Great Neck South wasn't as easy as the score indicates. Long Beach led 21-17 after one quarter, 36-30 at the half and 50-44 after three quarters. In the fourth, however, sophomore James Philpott came off the bench to score all eight of his points, while Burns added eight, to help the Marines pull away.
In their other two games, they had comfortable leads by intermission.
Burns had 25 points to lead 11 Long Beach scorers in its 86-52 victory over Herricks in a game the Marines led 51-28 at the half. Pitts (22 points) and Isola (17) scored six points apiece in the second quarter to help the Marines to a 32-20 half-time lead in their 80-53 triumph over Oceanside. Senior Matt Taylor added 10 points.
I don't know all the combinations of kids we can use yet, Williams said. We're only getting a little more than an hour of practice time each day. In a heated game, we're going eight-to-10 players deep. That's not going to change because of the style that we play.
As expected, Long Beach's controlled chaos pressure defense has forced its share of turnovers. But in the future, Coach Williams would like to see more baskets from the team's transition game.
We're doing a good job with getting turnovers, but we're not cashing them in all the time, he said. That and foul shooting are two things we need to improve.
The Marines had opened conference play with an ugly 32-point loss to talented Uniondale and a 15-point defeat to South Side. But now things are looking up.
Burns is averaging close to 20 points per game despite drawing double coverage most of the time. Teams are sagging on Gerard and that leaves other guys open, Williams said. If we can shoot well from the outside, we'll be in good shape.
Pitts, Isola, Poole, Philpott, Taylor, juniors Greg Dugan and Harold Robinson, and sophomores Marcus Johnson and Sean Soriese have all contributed to the recent offensive outburst.
Long Beach visits Hicksville this Friday at 7 p.m. The Marines
