Jake Murphy's 20 points propel South Side past Jericho
Few teams can turn defense into offense like the South Side boys basketball team.
The Cyclones used their pressure on-ball defense to force turnovers and difficult shots, and turned those into fastbreak points. Host South Side scored 16 of the final 19 opening-half points to take command of the game in its 64-51 victory over Jericho in Nassau Conference A-III boys basketball Tuesday evening.
“I’ve always said energy can lead to transition, energy can lead to hustle and energy can give you extra possessions,” coach Jerry D’Angelo said. “And maybe we got an extra 10 possessions because of our energy and it’s an extra 10 chances to score.”
The Cyclones seemed to take advantage of every last one of them, especially Jake Murphy. The senior guard had 20 points, including 15 in the first half, to lead South Side (6-2).
“Jake sometimes can get in those modes where you can just see in his eyes he’s going to score,” D’Angelo said. “And it’s a pleasure to have and I think the kids on our team feed off it.”
Not far from Murphy’s mind was the team’s previous performance against Jericho (5-2). The Jayhawks defeated South Side, 81-64, in late December and the Cyclones couldn’t forget that loss.
“We’ve been thinking about it for weeks ever since the loss,” Murphy said. “We’ve been preparing in practice and getting ready. We knew we had to make a statement in this one.”
Ryan Ledwith added 17 points, Jack McDonald had 12 points and Eamon McGowan had six points and 13 rebounds in the win.
South Side expanded its 36-21 halftime lead to 53-34 after the third quarter and took as large as a 25-point advantage midway through the fourth quarter.
“The team was just flowing,” Murphy said. “Everything was working for us.”
D’Angelo added the team is now healthy, playing some of its best basketball and sporting a nine-game winning streak toward the most important part of the season. With the playoffs roughly two weeks away, the Cyclones want to continue their upward trajectory.
“The win’s big, but this isn’t going to be the highlight of the season,” McGowan said. “We want to go far in March and make our name known this year, so we’re going to keep playing hard every day and show everyone what we got.”
