Cyclones Hoops Tops Bethpage, 58-43

The South Side High School Cyclones won its first Conference A-II game of the season on Friday night, defeating Bethpage 58-43 even though the team had a lackluster effort on the offensive end.

Head Coach Gerry D'Angelo was noticeably upset with his team's overall effort, as well as its offensive output, which only scored 17 points in the first half against an over-matched Golden Eagles team. "I don't think we came out focused at all," he said. "We looked stale in warm-ups, and we didn't play with enough energy. In the first quarter, we fell in love with the jump shot."

The Cyclones were led by junior Ryan Spadaford, who scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Junior guard Darren Nickelson led the team with five assists. The Cyclones also out-rebounded the Golden Eagles, 28-15, and won the turnover battle, 36-17.

South Side settled for contested jumpers in the first quarter, and their unaggressive play left them down 13-7 after the first eight minutes. Spadaford scored five of the team's seven first quarter points.

To help spur some offense, D'Angelo went with an 11-man rotation, which helped spark a 10-1 second quarter run and a 17-14 lead. The Cyclones also used a full court press in the second quarter, forcing ten Bethpage turnovers. The Golden Eagles did not make a field goal for the entire eight minutes.

"I didn't like our energy," D'Angelo explained of why he went to the full-court press. "I thought the press would get our motor running."

Guard Nick Bruno and forward Matt DiPerna came off the bench and attacked the rim during the Cyclones second-quarter run — a spark D'Angelo said the team needed. "They came out and gave us great energy," he said of his two bench players. "I think that helped the other three guys (on the court) follow along."

Though the team's offense wasn't as sharp as it was during its first three games of the season, its defense stifled an undersized Bethpage team, holding the Golden Eagles to one field goal over a nine-minute span between the second and third quarters. South Side dropped 21 points in the third, while Bethpage committed 15 turnovers during the same time span, leading to a 38-22 Cyclones advantage heading into the fourth quarter.

Though South Side was outscored 21-20 in the game's final eight minutes, Bethpage totaled 36 turnovers for the game. D'Angelo said that though his team played sloppy, their defense made plays when they had to. "I guess you can give us a little credit," he said of Bethpage's inordinate amount of turnovers. "We switched a lot on screens and maybe that confused them a bit. We never gave them the same look twice. But I wouldn't give us 100 percent of the credit."

South Side plays today at 7:30 p.m. at home against Plainedge.