Baldwin win streak hits four
Basketball is a game of X’s and O’s, but sometimes, a coach needs to take on the role of engineer in determining how the pieces of the team fit together.
Baldwin’s Darius Burton tweaked his starting lineup for last Friday’s Conference AA-II home battle with Port Washington and it paid instant dividends. The Bruins (7-2 overall, 5-0 in Conference AA-II) scored 30 points in the opening quarter on the way to an 80-63 victory. “We’ve been winning but not playing good ball,” Burton said. “But I was pleased with the way we played against Port Washington. I hope it carries over. We’re hoping to play the right ball at the right time.”
Four Baldwin players scored at least a dozen points—11 different players scored in all—led by senior guard Andres Gonzalez, who drained 5 of 9 three-pointers and finished with 18 points. Four of the threes came in the first half as the Bruins stormed out to a 53-25 lead. “He’s probably the best shooter I’ve ever had in the program,” Burton said. “Teams know that when he comes in the game they have to guard him at the three-point line. But he takes three or four steps back and [still] hits nothing but the bottom of the net.
“He has the green light to pull from anywhere, and I think that helps his confidence.”
When Gonzalez is spot-on from the perimeter, it opens up the floor for an already aggressive backcourt duo of seniors Brandon Williams and Mykeil Tzule. Though Williams, the team leader in scoring, had just two points in the win, he dished out 10 assists, the second time he hit double digits in the category in the last three games. Williams had 11 assists as part of a triple-double (27 points, 10 steals) in a 73-61 win over MacArthur on Jan. 6. “What I liked is that he didn’t have to score for us to win,” Burton said. “A true point guard doesn’t have to score to win.”
Tzule also continued his unselfish play, scoring 15 points (11 in the first quarter) and adding nine assists to go along with eight steals. Senior Kirk Staine had 12 points, while senior Kyle Richardson had 15 points and a team-high 10 rebounds. The lineup tweak included the addition of Rashid Lasane to the starting five and a little more quickness over size. “We went smaller because I felt we were struggling a little,” Burton said. “It seemed to work well.”
The victory ran Baldwin’s current winning streak to four games and followed a 47-42 decision over Plainview JFK on Jan. 10. Though the Bruins struggled with their shooting and converted just 30 percent from the floor, the defense held the Hawks to just 22 points in the first half and 20 in the second.
Baldwin opens the second half of the Conference AA-II schedule as the only team without two losses and heads to Valley Stream Central on Friday with tipoff scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
