By Joseph Staszewski
Bayside Coach Corey Semper and his players believe they are just as good as a loaded Long Island Lutheran team. They just weren’t better when it counted.
The Crusaders out-executed the Commodores in the game’s final four minutes and handed them a 58-55 defeat at the Big Apple Basketball Invitational at Baruch College Monday afternoon. Semper said his team didn’t play together on the offensive end and Lutheran finished the game on a 6-0 run.
“We fell apart with under four minutes left,” the coach said.
Cantrell Barker led Bayside (17-2) with 15 points. Austin Williams had 13 points and nine rebounds and Daquise Andrews added 13 points. All three played 30 minutes and Williams felt that affected them late in the game.
“We got real tired,” Williams said. “We weren’t playing how we were supposed to. We didn’t play how we should of in the fourth quarter. We’ve got to finish games like that.”
LuHi took the lead for good on two Tim Quashie free throws with 1:10 remaining in the game. Bayside, coming off a win over Half Hallow Hills West Saturday, let chances to win the game slip away in the final 30 seconds.
Cantrall Barker had the ball stripped away from him down a point and trailing by two Kentan Facey, who is headed to UConn next year, blocked a driving Austin Williams with 4.9 seconds left in the contest. Sophomore point guard Chris Atkinson paced LuHi (15-1) with 18 points. Facey scored 12 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and blocked nine shots. Still, Williams felt he needed to challenge him in the closing seconds.
“We were down two,” said Williams, who has offers from Iona and Quinnipiac. “I was trying to go to the basket and draw the foul.”
Until the final four minutes, the game was played at the up-and-down pace that Bayside thrives in. It’s guard-orientated attack scored in transition and hit open outside shots. That helped them negate the size of Long Island Lutheran, which moved up to the ‘AA’ after winning the Class A state Federation title last season. The Commodores led 30-21 after an Andrew’s three-pointer with 1:55 remaining in the first half.
“We are one of the top teams also,” Semper said. “That’s the way we play.”
It is that way he wanted to see his play when the game was on the line. The cohesion and continuity ceased to exist.
“Fourth quarter we have to come to play,” Williams said. “People can’t go hide out in the corner.”
