Sewanhaka streaks into playoffs

Sewanhaka boys’ basketball finished the regular season last Saturday in perfect form, as the Indians rolled over Glen Cove, 60-36. The victory was an exclamation mark to what has been an incredible run, and also continued a win streak that’s reached 13.
Looking back on everything, Sewanhaka head coach Jay Allen couldn’t help but be proud of what his unit has accomplished. “It was really a tale of two seasons,” Allen said. “We were banged up in the beginning of the year and now we’ve won 13 straight games. From the beginning of the season we thought we were one of the best teams in the county. It’s an incredible run to win 13 straight.”
In this particular matchup, the Indians dominated even though it wasn’t always pretty. Defensively is where the they set the tone, as Glen Cove had to work immensely for every look on offensively. Part of the reason the Indians were so stifling defensively was they were able to differentiate looks and switched between playing a full-court press and playing a 2-3 zone in the half court. They also mitigated the opportunity for Glen Cove to have second chance points, as the Indians let up very few offensive rebounds.
Offensively, the team had good success both from behind the perimeter and in the paint. Senior J’Den Lloyd was an intimidating presence all afternoon. The bruising forward had 13 points and 13 rebounds, with most of his points coming from hard-fought buckets in the paint. Senior Chris Cherry also had 13 points, mostly coming from 3-pointers. Senior guard Kamren Demhart also had 10 points, as there was little need for him to force shots and did a great job of picking his spots. Senior guard Tyler Harts had 9 points.
It was a balanced attack, as the team’s good ball movement contributed to the distributed scoring outputs. It was a proper representation of how the team has played all years, which makes this particular victory even more poetic.

“To cap it off winning the conference championship is perfect,” Allen said. “All the credit goes to the players. We were a different team coming out of the Christmas break.”
The Indians sport a 15-4 record, which was the best record in conference A2. Considering how well the team has played in the past two months, there really isn’t a ceiling on how far this team can go. However, if the Indians want to reach their full potential, it will likely depend on how well the team defends in their upcoming matchups against top caliber teams.
“We’re playing very well right now,” Allen said. “We needed to play better as a unit and we have. With everything that’s happened over the past years a lot of guys didn’t get the experience they would have if the season wasn’t shortened. How far we go will depend on well we play defensively down the stretch.”