GNS Rebels top Highlanders, 58-50

Michael Scro

The Great Neck South Rebels boy varsity maintained their perfect record Tuesday evening with a 58-50 victory over the Herricks Highlanders at Herricks High School.

Coming off a one-point victory over Carey High School last Friday, Great Neck South played with intensity from the opening tip-off. 

The Rebels, who pushed their record to 3-0, led the Highlanders by 10 points at halftime, and pushed the lead to nearly 20 points during the second half. 

Herricks, whose record fell to 2-3, started closing that gap in the game’s final minutes, but came up short. 

Mitchell Finkel led the Rebels with a team-high 21 points, and proved to be a formidable force on the boards with 14 rebounds. He was joined by Mark Jason who had nine rebounds for Great Neck South. Herricks had no rebounds for the entire game.

Brendan Brown was the Rebels’ second highest scorer with 11 points, followed by Ben Lee with 10 points. 

Great Neck South also outgunned Herricks in three-point shots, sinking six to the Highlanders’ two shots from beyond the perimeter.

Herricks standout point guard Andrew Fellus was fighting the flu, according to Herricks head coach Tom Kinsella, which he partly attributed to the slump his team was in. 

“I’m not going to make it an excuse, he and the rest of the team played their hardest,” Kinsella said. “However Great Neck South played better…so they deserved to win.”

Fellus scored an impressive 38 points last week in their 61-55 victory against Calhoun. Against Great Neck South, he scored 19 points, including 10 out of 11 free throws and one three-pointer. 

Jatinder Singh was the Highlanders second leading scorer, with 17 points, including three out of four free throws.

Great Neck South is the top seed in the Nassau Conference AA-III, and Herricks is the conference’s sixth seed. 

“We did very good for the first three quarters, but lost our game plan in the fourth,” Rebels head coach Steve Liebertz said. “(Andrew) Fellus is a great basketball player, and it was hard to stop him.”  

Liebertz has coached at Great Neck South since the 1980s and won his 300th game last year.

The Rebels will face Elmont (0-2) on on their home court on Friday evening at 6:30 p.m. The Highlanders will face Carey High School (0-3) at their home court on Thursday evening at 4:30 p.m.

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