Spadaford leads South Side into semis

After missing the last four games of the regular season with a high ankle sprain, South Side’s Ryan Spadaford made just a cameo appearance Feb. 17 in its Nassau Class A first-round playoff victory over 15th-seeded North Shore.

But the senior forward was back to his usual starring role five days later in the quarterfinals against No. 10 Wantagh, scoring a game-high 27 points and pulling down 13 rebounds in the second-seeded Cyclones’ 68-57 win. Seniors Kevin Coyle and Robert Picchioni had 14 and 11 points, respectively, while Justice Perez paced the Warriors with 21 and Eric Regenbogen added 10.

“We wanted to a better job defending Perez and Regenbogen,” South Side coach Jerry D’Angelo said. “They’re both in the 15 to 20-point range. We just tried to make things a little bit harder and give them more double teams.”

It took a few minutes for Spadaford, who said he’s “90-95 percent,” to find a groove and once he did South Side was well on its way to beating Wantagh a third time this season. “It’s tough to beat a team three times,” Spadaford said as he unwrapped a soft brace from each ankle. “I thought we played together and matched their intensity,” he added. “We really picked up the defense after the first quarter.”

Coyle, Picchioni, Darren Nickelson and Tim Gangadeen carried the offense early before Spadaford hit the scorebook with a pair of free throws for a 13-9 lead.

The Cyclones clung to a 20-18 advantage after eight minutes, and despite Nickelson on the bench with two fouls for the majority of the second quarter the lead increased to 37-29 by halftime. Justin Rhodes and Gerald Mitchell both came off the bench to sink jumpers, and Spadaford had 11 of his 18 first-half points in the second.

The pace slowed in the third quarter and the Warriors got to within four before Coyle rattled in a trey and Nicholas Bruno sank a free throw to give South Side a 46-40 advantage heading into the fourth.

Wantagh closed the gap to four again, 48-44, before the Cyclones scored on four straight possessions to take a commanding 12-point lead. Picchioni highlighted the spurt with a dazzling fake-around-the-back pass layup that baffled Matt Balzano with 5:18 remaining.

A little more than two minutes later, Spadaford provided the dagger with his third trey of the night to make it 61-49.

“When teams play a third time there are no surprises,” D’Angelo said. “It usually comes down sometimes to one or two simple adjustments.”

The Cyclones, who were upset in the first round last season as the No. 2 seed, advanced to meet No. 6 Hewlett in the semifinals Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. at SUNY-Old Westbury.