Five weeks ago, the Mattituck High boys basketball team walked into the Babylon gymnasium and suffered its worst defeat ofthe season, losing by 37 points.
The Tuckers promised themselves that they would not let history repeat itself in the Suffolk County Class B semifinals. On Friday night, the second-seeded visitors combined a great start and an impressive finish en route to a 69-60 victory over the No. 3 Panthers in a thrilling and entertaining affair.
“We came into this gym after last season, beating them twice, and thought we would roll in here the first time and cruise to a win,” sophomore guard Connor Searl said of the 75-38 loss on Jan. 8. “But that wasn’t the case. They caught us off guard. They had a lot of things going for them that day. We really wanted to come back to this gym with a vengeance. That really fueled our game today and our passion and grit.”
“It was a great, exciting game,” head coach Paul Ellwood said. “It was the 14th time we played them in five years, and we finally won a playoff game here.”
The Tuckers had lost three playoff games in Babylon the past five years. “Both played at the highest level they could,” Ellwood said. “We jumped out, they came back. We pulled away again; they came back again. They took the lead, and we answered one more time, and put the game away. A tremendous, fun game — fun for the spectators.”
Every Mattituck startermade key contributions. Sophomore guard Oakley Carr-Smith tallied a game-high 27 points, including a season-high eight treys. Searl collected 24 points and scored in different ways, from three-point range, coast-to-coast after gathering a rebound or driving to the basket through traffic. He was also 7-for-7 from the foul line.
Sophomore guard Antonio Sparacio recorded seven of his 13 points in the fourth quarter, including three vital free throws in the final 50.3 seconds. Senior forward Tyler Brown finished with five points, including a layup during crunch time, and grabbed a few key rebounds down the stretch. Senior guard Michael Buckley did not score but his alert defense helped the Tuckers transform turnovers into baskets.
Mattituck (6-15) enjoyed as much as a 29-15 advantage with 3:01 remaining in the second quarter, but the Panthers (3-16) chipped away. Junior guard Carter Palmieri (18 points) put in a layup for Babylon’s only lead at 54-53 with five minutes and 10 seconds remaining in the game.
Buckley fell to the floor. Palmieri taunted him and was assessed a technical foul.
“I went straight up, and he made a good layup,” Buckley said. “I was on the floor. He went up to me, and he kind of flexed, and said some language, profanity. The ref was right next to us. You should get a tech if you’re standing over someone and saying, whatever.
Source: The Suffolk Times
