By Steve Siniski
With eight seconds left and the Tigers Stephen Atkinson at the line, the Bruins' Bleacher Creatures rose to the occasion and played a large hand in Atkinson missing two free throws with Hempstead looking to expand on a one-point lead.
Off the second miss, Henderson grabbed the last of his 10 rebounds, and threw a pass down-court to Woods, who out-maneuvered a Tigers defender and spotted Manning, who was open and and under the basket. With the clock ticking, Manning managed to pull off a game-winning layup just before the buzzer sounded and a Hempstead defender could get a hand on the ball.
"The Bleacher Creatures were at their best," Bruins Coach Darius Burton said of Baldwin's home crowd making life difficult for Hempstead at the free-throw line. "We had a two-on-one break and Manning made the contested lay-up."
The win extended Baldwin's winning streak to six games, but more importantly moved the team into a first place tie in Conference AA-I heading into the final three games against Uniondale (last Tuesday), Massapequa (Friday at 7 p.m.) and Elmont (Feb. 12, 7 p.m.). The Bruins had previously earned a first-round bye in the upcoming Nassau County Class AA playoffs with a 59-45 win over Freeport on Jan. 31.
"After we lost two straight [earlier in the year] I told [the guys] that a good team bounces back from adversity," Burton said. "So far we've been doing that. We're playing with a lot of confidence right now."
Woods led the way with 20 points, while Manning added 15 to go along with eight boards, seven steals and five assists.
"He's a stat-stuffer," Burton said of Manning, a junior. "He's becoming the player I thought he would be. He can dominate a game and not even score a point."
Henderson scored 13 points in a double-double effort and also had two of the Bruins eight three-pointers. Baldwin opened up a lead as large as nine points in the third quarter after Woods converted three consecutive jumpers on assists from Brandon Ellis, Manning and Henderson, but Hempstead charged back and cut the deficit to just 49-47 at the end of the frame.
The end-game heroics by Manning were set up by an Atkinson layup with 28 seconds to play and a pair of missed free throws on the next Baldwin possession with just 10 seconds left. That forced the Bruins to foul off the second attempt and put Atkinson in the crosshairs of a ferocious home crowd.
"This was the greatest win, especially at home in front of the fans, that I've ever coached," Burton said.
Strangely enough, it wasn't Burton's first buzzer-beating win over Hempstead. As a senior for the Bruins in 1993, he pulled up for the game-winning jumper at the foul line with no time remaining for a one-point win. The season-finale against Elmont could determine who snags first place in the conference. That game is also Senior Night for Baldwin, and more importantly, a litmus test for the team as it gears up for its first playoff game at home on Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. against an opponent to be determined.
"You love to play a tough game at home going into the playoffs because you see where you're at," Burton said.
The Bruins defeated the Spartans on the road, 67-61, on Jan. 7, with Henderson scoring a game high of 20 points.
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Photos by Janine Bily/Herald
