Rams Had to Reach to Topple Seahawks

West Hempstead High School's varsity boys basketball team rallied in the second half of its game Tuesday night to rout the Carey Seahawks (0-2) 60-40 at home, moving their early season record to 2-1.

Although it looks like a thoroughly convincing win on paper, the Rams had to deliberate a bit before staking any claims.

"We played aggressive, but sloppy," said Rams Head , describing the first half after the game.

After the first three scoreless minutes, the Rams got on the board with a 3-pointer from senior forward Greg Cerece (20) to begin a 9-point run that gave the impression that the game would be a blow out.

It was like fizz on top of a soda bottle, dropped and then opened too quickly. The Rams went flat fast as Carey settled in to feast on their opponent, inching back to the table with an 11-8 rally by the close of the first quarter. Carey capitalized on fouls and culminated the first half with a 3-point bucket from their senior guard Kyle DeMeo (21) to contravene Cerece's opener just before the buzzer, which sent the Rams into the locker room trailing 23-21.

They came back the second half looking to set things right. They cleaned up the fouls, ultimately committing 4 to Carey's 12, and kept it neck-and-neck for most of the third quarter, until the final minutes when they began to pull away. This led up to a dramatic finish that made the rest of the game look anticlimactic. In the final seconds, DeMeo nearly came up with a steal at half court for the Seahawks when he swatted a pass up in the air, but Tayvon Hall (12), off the bench for the Rams, won the impromptu jump ball. Hall dished it up to Cerece, who drew in a defender and set up fellow senior starter, Tom Valerio (4), open in the corner perimeter. The crowd erupted as Valerio drained it for 3 and a foul with 2.7 seconds on the clock.

Coach Cosgrove followed up his explanation of the first half, "We cleaned up a bit. We played a little bit smarter. We shared the ball more. Our turnovers went down and our assists went up."

West Hempstead outscored Franklin Square 21-7 in the final period to seal the win.

When asked which of his players stood out the most in the match, Cosgrove said Tyree Glascoe (3) "did a nice job pushing the ball up the floor," and Ousmane Camara (32) "did a good job defending their big guy and rebounding…that, I think was a spark."

Senior guard Darnell Davy (10) led the Rams in scoring with 12 points, followed by Glascoe and Cerece, each with 11.

"We just need to build wins and build confidence right now," Cosgrove said. "We're fairly inexperienced on the varsity level. We have seven seniors, but they don't have enough game time experience. So we're trying to get that right now."

The Rams hope to take the confidence gained and the lesson learned about the importance of discipline into their next game this Friday against Glen Cove, which will be their first conference trial.