Basketball

Starting over

Rosa lights it up but Westies fall to rangy and experienced Walton Warriors in opener

By RICHARD A. ROSS

LAKE HUNTINGTON, NY — New faces abound on Sullivan West’s varsity boys basketball team. Gone now are scoring mavens Brad Reimer, Justin Armstrong and James Spruill.

The only Bulldog veteran is one of the region’s finest shooters, RJ Rosa. Rosa spends most of the year working on his game. And while the two sophomore and two junior starters and other newbies adjusted to the turbulent waters of varsity play, Rosa looked up to the task on November 30 as the young Dawgs took on the Walton Warriors in a non-league season opener.

Walton returns eight players from its 16-6 season a year ago and seven of them are seniors. Losing in the second round of the Section IV sectionals to eventual champion Oxford, coach Gary Williams’ squad already has the chemistry that Sullivan West coach Cliff Kelly hopes will evolve as the season progresses.

Walton’s size created problems. Even as Sullivan West got a couple of Warriors in early foul trouble by taking it to the rack, Williams just brought in more trees. Mixing in some zone defense with its patented man-to-man, Sullivan West needed to do a better job of bumping cutters, thus availing the Warriors open shots from the corners, as well as put backs in the post.

Rosa led all scorers with 27 points and enticed the large home crowd with four treys along the way. Junior Lucas Bauer had 12 points, but as Kelly noted after the 65-51 defeat, “We’re going to need other people to step up and assume some leadership.” Clearly, Rosa will be seeing defenses schemed to minimize his impact.

Liberty’s Jason Semo was on hand to script what he saw from the Bulldogs to prepare for coming league frays.

Sullivan West (0-1) kept it close in the first quarter and even led at one point 8-7. They trailed 20-15 at the end of the first quarter but that deficit burgeoned to 39-27 at the half.

Both teams committed its share of turnovers, Walton even more than its younger adversary but, led by senior Steve Kaminsky’s 22 points on the night, Walton’s size, depth and experience began to take its toll. The lead swelled to as much as 20 in the third quarter when Sullivan West trailed 53-38. The Westies showed their moxie in cutting the final deficit nearly in half during the game’s final 14 minutes.

Good signs included eight for 15 from the stripe (62 percent) and a total of five three pointers on the night. Walton (1-0) shot 50 percent from the line (14 for 28).

Kelly’s take on it all: “It was a good warm up for us. They’re a well-coached and well-oiled machine. They don’t break down.”

The savvy coach knows it’s a long season and you’ve got to start somewhere. Rosa is a great centerpiece for this squad, but it will be up to the supporting cast to step it up at both ends of the floor if the Bulldogs hope to be serious contenders in the tough environs of Division IV.