Welcome Home: Boys’ Varsity Basketball Wins Home Opener
Francis Lewis Patriots fans filled the stands for the Boys’ Varsity Basketball home opener on November 19 as they defeated Beach Channel High School 62-52 and took their first victory of the season under the guidance of Coach Ciarleglio.
“First off, home openers are always the games that all players look forward to, but are also nervous for,” Senior and Co-Captain Tyler King Pollidore said. “For myself, going into this I had to remain calm and lead by example [since] I was playing with a lot of first time varsity players. We have a couple things to clean up but we can only build off of what we did good and success so far.”
Starters Aidan Nunez, Tyler King Pollidore, Davian Hall, Leron Okane Addy and John Lagos stimulated an exciting beginning to the game as the Patriots took a 5 point lead at the end of the first quarter and a 10 point lead by the end of the first half.
Hall encouraged strong defense with 14 total rebounds, 10 of which were defensive. Nunez led the team offensively with 13 points scored as well as contributing 11 total rebounds. Both Elijah Pratt and Jordan Arias contributed positively on offensive with 5 assists each.
“I thought we played very hard defensively and rebounded well,” Coach Ciarleglio says. “We shared the ball offensively. One area for improvement going forward will be controlling the ball and limiting turnovers.”
The team is sharing a common goal and mentality this season and it showed in the success of their home opener.
“We are playing with a BEAST MODE mentality and a POINT GAME mentality in honor of our late coach, Lee Little,” King Pollidore added.
With inspiration from their late coach, the team’s efforts toward a win have paid off and will hopefully continue as the season progresses.
“Win, that’s it,” senior and Co-Captain Davian Hall said. “Simple as that. Win at all costs – 10 [points] or more, nothing lower. We’re too good of a team to have a close game with any team.”
