Carle Place overpowers Tuckers in boys hoops Long Island title game

Mattituck tried everything to solve Carle Place.

The Suffolk County champs drove to the hoop, but it didn’t work. They tried shooting treys, but the ball refused to droop. The result was a 53-36 loss in the Long Island Class B boys basketball championship game at Farmingdale State college on Sunday.

The Tuckers (9-10), who lost to a Class B school for the first time in eight games this season, were held to their lowest point total. Carle Place booked a spot at the state championships in Binghamton this weekend.

“Carle Place played a great game,” head coach Paul Ellwood said. “They had a great game plan. They’re well coached. Super defensively. We knew that was going to be the case. It was going to be hard to get to the rim unless we made some threes. We really didn’t hit enough threes to make them respect it and come out of the paint.”

Added senior guard Owen Searl: “We would have to do everything right to win that game, and the shots weren’t falling.”

The Frogs (15-8) did an excellent job holding down Searl, Mattituck’s leading scorer (15.4 points a game).  He was limited to three points on a first-quarter trey.

“It was tough,” he said. “They made me uncomfortable. Definitely affected my shot making. Disappointed that the shots didn’t fall, but that’s how it goes. I’m always going to keep shooting. Sometimes they’re going to go in and sometimes they’re not.”

Carle Place’s 6-foot-4 junior guard Ryan Leary, who scored a game-high 20 points, covered Searl for a good portion of the contest.

“They switched everything on him,” Ellwood said. “Most of the time, Leary ended up on him. He can jump out of the gym. He’s super strong. Owen had to take super-challenged shots. Just tip a cap to Leary and their defense. They had played great team defense on Owen. They knew who he was. We could hear them talking from their bench on how to defend him.”

Overall, Mattituck converted only 23.6% percent of shots (13-of-550 in contrast to the Frogs’ 40.5% (15-of-37) performance from the field.

“They’re solid defensive team, for sure,” freshman forward Connor Searl said. “They made us work for everything. They were blocking shots. They were aggressive.”

Leary set the pace at both ends of the court. He scored six points in the opening quarter as the Frogs rolled to a 16-9 first quarter lead on route to a 25-14 halftime advantage.

He was the lone Frog in double figures, but he had help in Mario D’Alessando and Greg Koutsogiannis (nine points apiece), Leonard Thames (eight) and Matt Babino (seven).

The Tuckers should have a bright future ahead of them as 27 of their points were scored by underclassmen. Freshman guard Antonio Sparacio finished with a team-high 14 while classmate Connor Searl added 11.

Sparacio was a one-man show for Mattituck in the third quarter, scoring all of the Tuckers’ 12 points, including two treys, a steal for a basket and four foul shots.

“He’s just confident. He was attacking. The moment wasn’t too big for him as a freshman. He’s undersized going against bigger, stronger kids. He just did a great job,” Ellwood said. “He’s a freshman. Think about what he’s going to be like when he’s a senior.”

Add fellow freshman Connor Searl, who scored seven first-half points, and the Tuckers have a solid core returning next year.

“It makes me feel good,” Searl said. “I’m excited to be back next year. I think we’ll keep on improving. We’ve got a great foundation the next few years.”

Despite the defeat, Ellwood was upbeat. He noted that this season, Mattituck did not have a starter returning from last year’s squad.

“We played Babylon in our first league game, and we beat them on the road. It gave us hope and confidence. It just blossomed from there,” Ellwood said. “But this year was the most gratifying team I’ve had from where we started to where we ended up. It’s hard to be disappointed. We lost, but it’s going to go away fast. These guys are going to realize the success they had.”