Boys Basketball: Lakeland Beats John Jay 63-51

The first half of the opening round contest between Lakeland and John Jay in the Second Annual Carolyn Conroy Memorial Tournament at Lakeland High School Friday, Dec. 3 was an exciting, well played back and forth affair with the visiting Indians enjoying a 26-25 halftime edge.

Lakeland, led by 24 points from Alex Perlman, including 13 in the third quarter, came back with a strong second-half and was victorious 63-51.

"The first half we started kind of slow," Perlman said. "We had big shot (a 3-pointer) by Joey Dizon to spark us in the second half."

Lakeland talked at halftime about the need to improve its game on the boards and its defensive play. That talk seemed to work as the Hornets outscored John Jay 24-10 in the decisive third quarter.

"We talked about not allowing any offensive rebounds," Perlman said. "We had to step up the defensive pressure. We came out great in the third quarter."

Leading John Jay was Will Owen with 19 points. He thought that a big reason why the game in the second half swung in Lakeland's favor was because of what the Hornets did on the boards.

"We rebounded well in the first half, we didn't rebound as well the second half," Will Owen said.

In the first quarter, Owen came out on fire, scoring 10 of his 19 points, including two 3-pointers.

"It's the last season opener for most of our careers, being seniors," Owen said. "So we just have to come out and battle every night like we did in the first half."

John Jay's first half play pleased its coach Tom Nelligan.

"We were solid in the first half, we shot the ball well," Nelligan said. "But in the second half they banged us around. They are a strong, physical team that got a lot of second-chance opportunities, hats off to them."

Lakeland coach Henry Weltman took his hat off to Perlman and expects to be doing it a lot this season.

"That's what I expect from him," Weltman said. "What you saw tonight is what I expect from Alex. He had a great season last year as a sophomore, so he has one year under his belt. He is one of our leaders going into his second year right now."

POINT TOTALS

John Jay

Will Owen (19), Matt Ferentini (9), Brad Goldman (5), Kevin Feinstein (5), Brian Kehoe (5), Vincent Escriva (3), Tom Weingarten (2), Marc Johnson (2) and Justin Andrews (1)

Lakeland

Alex Perlman (24), Matt Wright (9), Savahn Steadman (7), Erik Schneider (6), Dan Eremita (5), Joe Dizon (3), J.V. Quiao (3), Matt Tartaglia (2), Colin Glenn (2) and David Judisky (2).

Carolyn Conroy

The tournament was named after Carolyn Conroy, a mathematics teacher at Lakeland for more than eight years during which she was an integral part of the school family. In 2008, she lost her courageous battle with Leiomyosarcoma cancer.

Tournament proceeds will be going to a scholarship fund in her name.