lost against Westbury High School Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. with a score of 66-58. New Hyde Park (4-3) was close to taking the game back with 40 seconds to go and a score of 60-58 Westbury, but some fouls by New Hyde Park in those last seconds helped to seal their fate.
Heroes: Joseph Justice, the highest scorer in the game with 18 points, really turned the game around in the last minute. With two three point shots with about a minute to go, he brought the score to 60-58, Westbury with victory somewhat tangible.
The third highest scorer, , who had 11 points in this game, also made some shots down low and landed a number of rebounds.
The second highest scorer in the game was Adam Priest with 15 points. He made a critical steal in the fourth quarter and Faizal Hussein made the basket resulting from that steal.
Turning point: There are two as New Hyde Park was leading the game at the outset of the first quarter. The score was 7-2, New Hyde Park at about three minutes into the first quarter, but then Westbury came back with a series of shots down low.
New Hyde Park and Westbury were tied at the end of the first quarter at 14 points and New Hyde Park didn't top Westbury score wise for the rest of the game.
New Hyde Park came back strong though at the end of the fourth quarter. Joseph Justice scored those two three point shots making victory seem possible, but unfortunately some last second fouls and subsequent shots by Westbury took that chance away.
Quotable: "Number 24 [Tim Quashie] is a good player and we need to do a better job of covering him," said Head Coach Don Rood. He added that his team played hard and came back and that this was a tough match against the defending County champions.
Bottom Line: Rood said the team has to work on appropriately defending against players such as Quashie, which he said might mean denying him the ball altogether.
Key Stat: Foul shots. Other than one layup with seconds to go, Westbury made most of their remaining points in the last minute of the fourth quarter from foul shots.
Who's Next? New Hyde Park @ Roslyn on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
Boys Basketball - New Hyde Park versus Westbury
Teams ........................ 1 ..... 2 .... 3 .... 4 .... F
New Hyde Park ......... 14 ... 8 ... 12 ... 24 .. 58
Westbury .................. 14 ... 17 .. 9 .... 26 .. 66
NHP: Joseph Justice 4-2-18, Priest 12-0-15, Simeon 12-0-11, Towey, 2-0-8, Hussein 4-0-4, Michael Justice 2-0-2. Totals: 36-2-58.
Three pointers: NHP: Joseph Justice 4, Towey 2, Priest.
