In what turned out to be a heck of a game, the Green Dragons boys basketball team fought hard to force overtime but ended up losing to the home team, Freeport, 68-59 in Thursday’s playoff quarterfinals game at Freeport High School.
The game started off at a fast clip as both teams tried to feel each other out in the early going. The Roughriders found the outside shooting touch early and their size and strength made it difficult for Westbury to get points in the paint. With Freeport taking the 19-14 lead at the end of the first quarter, the Green Dragons needed to figure out a way to get points without having to force shots inside.
That is where Kyle Spruill stepped in. The senior forward hit multiple three point shots to help Westbury tie the game at 23 in the second quarter and knocked in a big three before the halftime buzzer to cut the Freeport lead to one 32-31.
Things got off to a rough start for Westbury in the second half as Freeport went on a 6-0 run to open the third quarter. But Spruill came to the rescue for the Green Dragons once again, hitting two big three point shots to narrow Freeport’s lead to 42-39. In a spectacular play to end the quarter, starting forward, Malachi Dean rushed to the sidelines to save a ball from going out of bounds and turned around and hoisted up a three point shot that splashed in. That made the score 51-50 in favor of Freeport.
The Green Dragons went on their own 6-0 run to start the fourth quarter with Dean hitting an outside shot and layup and Spruill adding in a layup. Up by a score of 56-51 the Westbury crowd was up and on their feet giving the away team a thunderous round of applause.
The home team wasn’t going away though as they rallied to tie the score at 59 with less then a minute left in the fourth. After missing two free throws which would have given the Roughriders the lead, Westbury had 33 seconds left on the clock to score and ostensibly win the game. They came up short though failing to get a good shot off in the games final seconds of regulation.
With four minutes added to the clock in the overtime period it was anybody’s ball game.
Freeport made the most of overtime, hitting inside layups and forcing Westbury into tough interior shots as was the case early in the first quarter. The Roughriders ran off seven straight points and with seconds left on the clock, guard Willy Baldwin hit a runway layup to seal the victory for Freeport, 68-59.
“We had our shot to win the game in the regulation period when we were up by five in the fourth quarter,” said Westbury Coach, Dave Graff. “In overtime they just played better than we did.”
Spruill was the team’s leading scorer with 17 points including four three point shots.
