Glen Cove Boys Basketball Defeats North Shore

had two clear goals going into its game Friday night in Glen Cove: Play great defense and win the conference game against crosstown rival North Shore Vikings.

Big Red met its goals–ultimately defeating North Shore, 62-50.

The Big Red came into the game shooting well and commanding a 15-2 lead in the first quarter. North Shore didn’t score its first point until 2:05 in the first quarter. 

Glen Cove never trailed in the game, but they never reproduced the intensity that they had in the first quarter. Turnovers and inconsistent ball handling was detrimental to the Big Red as they carried a 29-13 going into the half.

“The tempo was set by our pressing in the first half, but silly fouls and turnovers made it tight,” Glen Cove coach Peter Falen said.

Glen Cove’s erratic play and costly turnovers in the second quarter carried over into the second half and North Shore continued to chip away at Glen Cove’s lead. The Vikings trimmed the lead to 33-19 at 5:52 in the third quarter.

After a Glen Cove time out at 2:46 in the third, Glen Cove was able to end the quarter with a 46-25 lead. The shooting of North Shore’s Justin Bell kept the Vikings in the game as he scored a team high 18 points. Limam Joyce also added 12 points for the Vikings.  

Heroes: Devin Hayes—19 points 8 rebounds, Austin Bresky—10 points 2 assists 1 turnover, Alex Ham—10 points 4 rebounds.

Turning point: The fourth quarter. North Shore went on a 6-1 run in the first 5 minutes of the quarter to produce an eventual 50-40 Glen Cove lead. The lead was cut slimmer after North Shore shot free throws after Glen Cove’s Alex Ham was charged with a questionable technical foul for taunting.

The technical foul and a timeout by North Shore, with 1:39 left in the game, rallied Glen Cove to close out with a win. After the time out, Glen Cove point guard Austin Bresky nabbed two steals which produced four quick points by Devin Hayes. They never looked back. Glen Cove won 62-50.

 “Thankfully we got a win,” said Falen.

Quotable:  “I told our guys going into this game that we had everything to lose facing a 0-9 North Shore team and they had everything to gain in being 0-9,” Falen said.

Bottom Line: Glen Cove won a game that it was supposed to win, but struggled to win it. Big Red faced a winless team. The team struggled in their half court offense when point guard Austin Bresky was on the bench. That resulted in costly turnovers by perimeter guys facilitating the offense in his stead.

Free throw shooting was not a strong point for the team either. They are shooting roughly 50 percent on the season.         

This game marked the end of the first half of the season and things are won’t get any easier for the 3-2 team. Glen Cove is clawing with West Hempstead, Valley Stream and Great Neck North for the final conference playoff spot.

Key Stat: Senior forward Devin Hayes scored 11 of his career-high 19 points in the second half to lead Glen Cove (3-2) in Conference III.

“I’m especially proud of Devin Hayes,” said Falen. “He definitely played his best career game this evening,” he added.

Who's next: Manhasset @ Glen Cove, Wednesday, 6:30 p.m.

Boys Basketball - Conference A-III

Teams...............1......2.....3......4 - F

Glen Cove........15....14....17.....16 - 62

North Shore.....2.....11....15.....22 - 50