The Mineola Mustangs varsity boys basketball team defeated the Garden City Trojans 62-57 in a non-league game on Tuesday evening, coming back from a 10-point deficit at the start of the second half.
Playing on a senior recognition day, Mustangs head coach Jim Hegmann said he went into the locker room at halftime telling his team to “start playing.”
“It’s senior night, so I told them to start playing like seniors,” Hegmann said.
In the first half the Trojans were breaking through Mineola’s defense, and hitting outside shots when they couldn’t make it into the paint.
Down 12 points less than two minutes before halftime, the Mustangs had to recast their strategy.
Mike Waszychuk, a senior guard, led the Mustangs to victory with a game-high 28 points, including five 3-pointers and seven free throw shots. He scored 13 points in the third quarter, where the Mustangs outscored the Trojans by 14 points.
Free throws and 3-point shots were where the game was won, with Mineola racking up 17 points in foul shots and making a total of nine 3-pointers.
With 1:10 left on the clock, Waszychuk hit two foul shots that broke a 57-57 tie. From there, the Mustangs played hard defense, and Malcolm Brown’s free throw shot at 23.9 seconds secured the Mustang’s win.
“Mineola made big shots in the second half, and they deserved to win tonight,” head coach for the Trojans Larry Steimer said.
The Trojans’ Spencer Bais scored a team high 14 points, Kyle Skramko scored 13 points, and Ed Blatz and Dan Bonchonsky scored ten points each. Skramko scored three 3-pointers.
Mineola is the second seed in their Nassau Conference A-IV, behind West Hempstead which has one more overall win than the Mustangs, and one more loss in the conference. The Mustangs face Seaford on February 1 and West Hempstead on February 5.
