Hills East Boys Basketball Notebook

The boys basketball team’s struggles continued this week, as they dropped two more games to Connetquot and Bay Shore, extending their winless streak to five games.

With the two losses, neither of which were in League III play, East (2-5, 5-5) is now tied with North Babylon—who defeated Newfield on Thursday—for seventh place in League III.

East recovers from early double-digit deficit to force Connetquot to overtime

Things were not looking pretty for Hills East early on Tuesday night against the Connetquot in the battle of the Thunderbirds.

Connetquot (3-3, 4-5) jumped out to an early 25-12 lead in the first quarter, giving the Thunderbirds a large pit to climb out of.

“We were down 18 points in the first half; we dug ourselves a deep hole,” said Hills East head coach Peter Basel. “We gave away too many possessions.”

The Thunderbirds were able to shift the momentum and scoreboard into their favor in the second half, however.

“We pressed them and forced a ton of turnovers,” Basel said of his team’s resurgence in the second half. “We got back into the game with defense and even took the lead in the fourth.”

The Thunderbirds were able to grab the lead in the fourth quarter behind the continuing emergence of junior Nate Schwartz, who led the team in scoring with 16 points.

A couple of turnovers and missed free throws later, and the Thunderbirds found themselves on the wrong side of the scoreboard once again, as the Connetquot edged them out, 66-63.

You know we had a shot in OT to tie,” said Basel of a near 3-pointer in the closing seconds. “We were down three, but it went in and out, but it shouldn’t have been like that.”

Bryson Lassiter powered Bay Shore passed the Thunderbirds

“Lassiter hurt us early in the first half whether we were playing man or zone,” said Basel of Bay Shore’s sophomore guard, Bryson Lassiter. “When we were playing zone he was still beating us.”

Lassiter dropped 21 points for the Marauders, helping his team defeat Hills East 74-50, Thursday night.

But it wasn’t Lassiter who was controlling the Thunderbirds fate on their side of the ball, as Basel’s team struggled offensively.

The effort was great,” Basel said. “We just have to find some more ways to get better looks offensively.”

The Thunderbirds kept the Marauders in check for most of the first quarter, leaving with the score knotted at 14. That production wasn’t able to carry over into the next quarter, however, as Lassiter and company were able to capitalize on turnovers and missed shots in the second, jumping out 36-22 lead going into the half.

“We had a bad day shooting; we have to get our confidence back,” said Thunderbirds co-captain Tyler McKenzie. “You lose five in a row and your mind isn’t the same, we have to get that [confidence] back.”

The Thunderbirds were able to contain Lassiter in the second half, but it was too much a margin to make up.

“We have to get it going from the beginning and take care of teams early so we don’t have to fight back in the second half,” McKenzie said.

Schwartz’ play earns him a starting spot

Nate Schwartz, who had been coming off the bench for the most part, has found himself a starting spot in the lineup with his recent scoring success.

“He’s been producing a lot,” said Basel. “This is what I thought he would do; he’s coming along nicely a little sooner than later.”

Coming into Thursday night’s game, which he shot 3-for-5, Schwartz had posted consecutive double-digit scoring efforts. He led the Thunderbirds with 16 points against Connetquot and 14 points against West Islip last week.

McKenzie hopefully has overcome his shooting woes

Tyler McKenzie had been in a self-admitted slump the previous three games. The Thunderbirds leading scorer (125) had only scored eight or less points in three of his previous four games. Thursday night against Bay Shore, McKenzie shot 4-for-6 and added seven free throws giving him 15 points on the night.

On finally snapping out of his slump, the co-captain had this to say: “Winning is better than scoring a lot of points.”

Next week’s opponents

The Thunderbirds host Northport on Wednesday, Jan. 26, at 4:30 p.m. and then travel to Sachem North on the 29 for a Saturday matinee at 1 p.m..