By:Zack Richner
Shelley's classmate Jesse Weiss also is a big fan of the team and its players. "Alex Anderson's the best," Weiss said. And then there were John Hunter and Greg Cove, who is the brother of the team's starting guard, Mike. Hunter and Cove declared in agreement, "Nick Castro will hit everything."
And while in the first quarter the two sixth-grade students appeared to be right,.South Side, ultimately, could not power past the four-time state champion Amityville Warriors, suffering a 70-62 loss to the Suffolk team.
Amityville won the opening tip-off, but South Side immediately forced a turnover. Then senior sharpshooter Nick Castro opened the game's scoring by converting a three-point shot to give the Cyclones the early lead. However the Warriors answered with two-time defending Suffolk Player of the Year A.J. Price, who was averaging 37 points per game in the playoffs. Price hit a three-point shot to tie the game.
Amityville scored two consecutive field goals before senior co-captain Mike Cove drew a charge on Price. South Side had to capitalize on the change of possession. The team ran a play for Castro, who once again drained a three-point shot, which moved the team to within one point of Amityville, 7-6. After an Amityville player made one of two free throws, Castro would tie the game at eight on South Side's ensuing possession on a shot from just inside the three-point arc. The score remained extremely close throughout most of the quarter. South Side took the lead by one, 17-16, with one and a half minutes to play, and then Cove drew a second charge on Price 40 seconds later.
The Cyclone players were full of energy and enthusiasm. The fact that everything seemed to be going South Side's way was exemplified when Castro hit his third three-point shot of the quarter as time expired to give South Side a 24-18 lead going into the second quarter.
The Warriors, however, started the next quarter on a 9-2 run to retake the lead. The lead changed many times throughout the quarter and ended with the score tied, 33-33. Though Amityville was battling back, the Cyclone players still had all the confidence in the world, but they were disappointed that they had let an eight point lead slip away.
This shield of self-belief appeared to begin to crack under Amityville's new defensive schemes of the second half. The Warriors placed Price, the team's best defender, on the Cyclone's hot hand Castro. The plan worked to perfection for Amityville. Price stuck to Castro like glue. Even when South Side ran Castro through double screens, he could not find an open shot. Castro did not see another clear look at the basket all night, and would finish the game with a team high 15 points, only four more than he had scored in the first quarter.
Not only did Amityville change its defensive strategy coming out of halftime, but it also changed its offensive strategy. The Warriors began to post up the 6'3" Price on the 5'9" Cove. Though Cove had done an admirable job containing Price in the first half, the height advantage that Amityville had in this match-up was clearly one that they were looking to exploit. After Price scored six points in the post, Cyclones coach Jerry D'Angelo substituted the taller and more physical junior Darnell Mayers for the Cyclones best defender Cove.
Mayers quickly penetrated the lane to score his first two points of the night, an aggressive mentality D'Angelo felt his team lacked. Perhaps seeing Amityville block many of South Side's layup attempts discouraged the Cyclones. But, D'Angelo praised those players who took the initiative to be aggressive and drive to the basket.
"I can't fault those players who had their shots blocked," the coach said. "Our game plan was to be aggressive, and that's what [the players] were trying to do."
However with the Amityville defense holding both Castro and South Side's star player senior co-captain Alex Anderson, who would finish the game with 12 points, in check, the Warriors ended the quarter with an eight point lead, 51-43.
The Cyclones never came within any less than six points of tying the score in the last quarter of play. Price collected 10 rebounds and scored 24 points for the Warriors, and the game ended with Amityville victorious 70-62.
Though South Side lost by an eight-point margin, D'Angelo said he was prouder of his players in the loss than he was after his team won the county championship.
"The amount of preparation that these kids put in for this game was unbelievable," D'Angelo said. "We practiced for two whole weeks to get ready for this one game and all 15 of my players were hardworking, ambitious, and disciplined throughout each practice.
"Over the two weeks we had off, I got calls from reporters and other coaches asking me how we planned to stay within 30 points of Amityville. We held our own for most of the game and ended up losing to probably the best team in the state by only eight points."
D'Angelo also learned something new about one of his graduating player, co-captain Matt Simoneschi. "I always knew Matt was a tough kid and a strong point guard, but the heart that Matthew showed in this game really made me think of him in a new light," D'Angelo said.
Though the season ended in defeat, D'Angelo hopes his players will remember the season as a special one. D'Angelo called this season "a year of records." There was the record South Side set for the longest game in Long Island high school history -a six-overtime game in January against Valley Stream South. There was the record Castro set for most three-pointers made in a Nassau County playoff game -ten, in the quarterfinal game against Great Neck North. And finally, there was the unofficial record number of injuries that South Side encountered throughout the season.
"My starting center [senior co-captain Tom Walsh] and my star player [Anderson] missed a combined 21 games this year, yet my team still went out and played their hearts out every single night. That's what I'm most proud of them for," D'Angelo said.
Though the eight-point defeat South Side suffered did not come close to the Amityville horror many expected, the Cyclone players will inevitably be disappointed after losing the Long Island final. Nevertheless, D'Angelo hopes they will remember what they have accomplished and the goals that they have achieved.
Next year will be a whole new look for South Side, as all five starters -Anderson, Castro, Cove, Simoneschi, and Walsh -will have graduated. But D'Angelo, knowing that his team will be willing to work harder than any other team, vows the team will once again compete for a championship.
"Oh yeah, we'll contend," D'Angelo said. "We'll definitely contend."
