Seahawks Upset Defending League Champs
/By Janee Law
jlaw@longislandergroup.com
Luke Doyle (1) passes to Mason Marion (21) at the Cold Spring Harbor Seahawks game against the Oyster Bay Baymen.
Battling for first in the Nassau ABC conference, the Cold Spring Harbor boys basketball team defeated the Oyster Bay Baymen 78-69 on Tuesday.
“A lot of things weren’t going our way in the first quarter and I knew that we were going to come back,” said Jason Mercurio, head coach for the Seahawks. “I was just telling the kids that just follow the game plan and stick to what we’ve been doing every single day and I knew that things were going to go our way.”
It didn’t look like it would turn out to be a sure victory toward the start of the game. At the end of the first quarter, the Seahawks were down by 14 points with the score 25-11.
“We’ve been in situations like that before and I think it really helped us, knowing that we can come back in these types of situations,” Mercurio said. “The kids really showed their grit and their maturity and they just stayed positive when things were not looking well and we kind a just battled back.”
Top performers during the game were senior guard Luke Doyle, junior guards Matt Licciardi and Reese Grossman and senior center Todd Hindman.
With six three-pointers, Doyle completed 23 points for the team while Licciardi completed 16 points with seven assists and three three-pointers.
Grossman also tacked on 16 points for the Seahawks, with five assists and three three-pointers; Hindman added 12 points and executed 12 rebounds.
“Todd Hindman played probably the best game that he’s played ever as far as rebounding the basketball and scoring points,” Mercurio said. “He had a little bit of a break away and he dunked the ball on one of the Oyster Bay players and that was a huge lift for us because we struggled maintaining our intensity in the second half of the game.”
With a conference record of 3-0, the Seahawks are scheduled to visit Carle Place on Friday to play the Frogs at 7:30 p.m.
“I just want the kids to continue to improve,” Mercurio said. “A big thing that we’ve been talking about a lot this year is not focusing on the fruit and focusing on the root. When were talking about just trying to not worry so much about wins and loses and just focus on the process of getting better every day.”
