Balanced effort propels Marines
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Long Beach junior Cedrick Coad rips down a rebound during the team's loss to visiting Massapequa in the Conference AA-II opener.
Ron Manfredi/Herald
Jaymen Teemer led five players in double figures with 15 points as Long Beach closed the 2009 calendar year with a 63-54 victory over Wantagh in a non-league boys’ basketball game on Dec. 28.
Teemer scored all but two of his points in the second half when the Marines outscored the Warriors by a 35-23 margin to win for the second time in five games. Alex Solomon added 12 points, Cedric Coad and Farrell Gordon had 11 apiece and Vincent Moore scored 10 as Long Beach snapped a three-game slide. Tom Megale poured in a game-high 18 points for Wantagh.
“I wanted us to get another win under our belt before conference play resumed,” Marines coach T.J. Burke said. “We got into some foul trouble early and went conservative in the second quarter, but we responded well after halftime and everyone contributed.”
Long Beach led most of the first half and by as many as six. Gordon nailed a trio of three-pointers in the opening quarter but Burke couldn’t take further advantage of his hot shooting after the junior picked up two fouls in six minutes. The Marines scored just seven points in the second quarter and allowed three baskets in the final minute to trail 31-28 at the half. Mike Addeo (16 points) banked in a shot at the buzzer for the Warriors.
Wantagh’s momentum continued early in the second half, and it built a six-point cushion thanks to a basket by Megale and a Matt Schussler free throw. Down 34-28, the Marines came back alive on offense and never trailed again after Solomon tied it at 37 with 4:57 remaining in the third.
“We need our defense to spark our offense,” Burke said. “We need to get better with help defense and I expect that to happen with more experience. They’ve got good size. They had some possessions in the second half where we slid the way we’re supposed to slide and shut them down. We made some key stops.”
Buckets by Moore and Coad capped an eight-point spurt and gave Long Beach a 41-37 lead, and after Wantagh battled back to make it a one-point game heading into the fourth a six-point run sparked by Moore and Damon Whitfield gave the hosts their biggest lead at 51-44 with 6:25 remaining.
The margin was eventually trimmed back to one with less than two minutes to go, but the Warriors didn’t score thereafter and Teemer had more gas in the tank. He sank two free throws to stretch the lead and hit a driving layup to make it 59-54 with 1:11 left. Solomon (two), Coad and Whitfield sealed it from the foul line.
Burke was looking for the Marines’ balanced effort to continue when Conference AA-II action resumed this week with games against Herricks, Oceanside and Great Neck South. “Any three-game week is tough,” he said. “Hopefully this win gets us going.”
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