Garden City Boys Basketball Beats Wantagh

Coach Larry Steimer had the Garden City boys come out of the locker room looking to try to get back on the winning side of the ledger and break a five-game losing streak -- and they did in impressive fashion, defeating the Wantagh Warriors 53-44.

The Trojans dropped their first game against the Wantagh Warriors earlier this month 56-46. Wantagh was coming off a one-point victory over Roslyn last week and the Warriors were facing a Trojan team without one of its top scorers: Gerard Roche.

Garden City still knew it had to contend with a good shooting team that was quick off the dribble and not averse to firing up three pointers. 

With Devin Dwyer pushing the ball up the court and driving to the basket hard and Steven Bradley hitting a couple of shots from the outside, the Trojans jumped out to an early five-point lead.

Midway through the first quarter, however, Wantagh started to find its range and hit for several three-pointers to close out the quarter even at 13.

The second quarter proved to be the turning point as the Trojans turned up the heat on the defensive end of the court, denying any good looks at the basket by Wantagh. With each missed shot, Garden City was able to push their fast break and convert good scoring chances by Dwyer, Kyle Skramko and Don Bonchonsky.

With a 12-2 advantage in the second quarter, Garden City led at half time by a score of 25-15.

The second half saw both teams go back and forth with small runs, but nothing that changed the outcome of the game as Garden City broke its losing streak with the nine-point victory.

Down the stretch it was the clutch foul shooting of the Trojans as they held a 12-2 advantage from the charity stripe.

For Garden City, Dwyer led the way with a career high 17 points, Bradley added 12, Skramko 9, Bonchonsky 8, Ed Blatz 5 and Matt Quesada 2.

The win puts Garden City’s Conference A-1 record at 1-5, while overall they stand at 4-9. Next up will be a home game against Jericho Tuesday at 6:45 p.m.