Eagles Hold On For Non-League Victory Over Sayville

The Hauppauge Eagles took advantage of timely shooting and missed free throws from Sayville in a 50-43 non-league victory Wednesday afternoon.

The Eagles, clearly rusty from a five-day layoff, led by two at halftime before a see-saw third quarter ended with the lead at one, 29-28.

"We had four days off and then with the snow day we couldn't get into the gym so we had five days off," head coach Dave Masino said. "We practiced well yesterday, a double practice, but I thought we could've played better. There were a lot of fouls and no tempo to the game, so there was a lot of factors behind it but I think we could do better."

Nevertheless, the Eagles took control in the fourth quarter and a big three-pointer by Kyle Sutryk put them ahead by four. The Golden Flashes never got any closer and the lead grew as large as 10 points before the game ended with the score at 50-43.

Sutryk finished the game with 8 points, while John Velazquez totaled 14 points in the win. Rob Scheim grabbed 7 boards to go along with his 8 points, while Luke Wolmer added 9 points.

"Velazquez is our number one guy," Masino said. "Sutryk's been playing well and we just try to get contributions from our other guys. I felt like we were doing better before this layoff and we just got to get in the gym, get the timing back, and we'll be better the more that we play."

The Eagles play their next non-league contest against Connetquot on Dec. 30 at 2 p.m. before really heading into the thick of their League IV schedule with games against West Babylon and Bellport the first week of 2011.

"We just have to see how it plays out," Masino said. "We had a great win against Huntington before the break. We have West Babylon, Bellport, and Hills West in our league so we just take it one game at a time, prepare and do the best that we can."