Schools

PLAYOFFS: Picchione Leads Cyclones Over North Shore, 65-45

Senior guard scores 16 points; keys defensive stops on county's top scorer.

What a difference a year makes.

Last season, the No. 2 seeded South Side Cyclones were stunned at home by a red-hot shooting Great Neck North squad, ending a one-loss, conference championship season with a disappointing finish.

This season, there would be no upset. The No. 2 Cyclones steamrolled the North Shore Vikings 65-45 on Friday night at , ousting the No. 15 seed in fairly easy fashion without their top scorer and rebounder — Ryan Spadaford — playing more than four minutes in the win.

Find out what's happening in Rockville Centrewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Spadaford was nursing a high ankle sprain, but the Cyclones crashed the boards with authority, came up with timely steals and shut down Nassau County's leading scorer Justin Bell.

"We had a good game plan for Bell," said Head Coach Gerry D'Angelo. "We wanted to send a lot of kids at home, have him catch the ball away from the basket and take his strong left hand away."

Find out what's happening in Rockville Centrewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Bell scored nine of North Shore's 11 first quarter points, but D'Angelo implemented some defensive adjustments in the second quarter which proved to be the right decision. Bell only scored nine points in the game's final three quarters. Bell led the county in scoring with 32 points per game. He finished with 20.

Senior Robert Picchione was given the arduous task of guarding Bell, and the hard-nosed guard was up to the task. He also filled the stat sheet with 16 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists. During a stretch of about six minutes spanning the first and second quarters, Picchione scored 12 of South Side's 16 points.

"Rob played excellent in all facets of the game," D'Angelo said. "He hit key three pointers and he was our main defender on Bell. He had a great game."

After ending the first quarter up 16-11, the Cyclones finished the second quarter by outscoring North Shore 24-8. They led 40-19 at half and stretched its lead to 30 by the end of the third quarter.

The Cyclones outrebounded the Vikings 41-17, which led to second and third scoring opportunities for South Side. "We knew we had good size," D'Angelo said. "We wanted to attack the boards and get more opportunities."

Without Spadaford for most of the game, his teammates picked up the slack. Kevin Coyle finished with 10 points and 5 rebounds, DJ Nickelson had 6 points, 3 rebounds, 6 assists and a steal, and Tim Gangadeen ended with 6 points, 6 rebounds and 3 blocks. In four minutes, Spadaford had 8 points and 3 rebounds.

South Side will host Wantagh on Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m. at South Side High School.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here