Senior point guard Tom McAndrew scored a career-high 17 points to help launch the MacArthur boys basketball team into the conference playoffs with a 64-44 non-league win at Herricks High School on Dec. 12.
McAndrew’s previous scoring high had been 15 points, against Valley Stream South and Hicksville last season.
Against Herricks, consecutive driving baskets by juniors Dean Peluso and Phil Carucci quickly opened a six-point lead. MacArthur took its first double-digit lead, at 17-5, on McAndrew’s three-pointer with 2:41 left in the first quarter. Another three-pointer by McAndrew then pushed the lead to 15 points.
Herricks closed to within 10 points early in the fourth quarter, but the Generals (2-1) scored the next nine points, capped by a pair of baskets from senior Tom Melendez and a free throw from McAndrew with 2:35 remaining.
Carucci, Peluso, Greg Baumstein and Brian Perez each finished with six points. Ryan Cunningham and Jack Wall had five points apiece.
The Generals will return home Friday, Dec. 20 at 6:15 p.m. for their final game of the regular season, against East Meadow.
