Nassau CC"s Timothy Waite drives into Dutchess CC's Jeremiah Williams...

Nassau CC"s Timothy Waite drives into Dutchess CC's Jeremiah Williams in the first half at Nassau CC on Saturday. Credit: Corey Sipkin

Nassau Community College sees itself as one of the top men’s basketball teams in its division in the area. And you can’t argue with the results over the last few seasons.

The Lions have averaged 25 victories a year over the last eight seasons, winning four Region XV Division III championships along the way. After a 75-66 home victory over Dutchess Community College on Saturday, the Lions improved to 17-4 and could be on their way to increasing that victory average and adding another banner in the gymnasium.

“At the beginning of the season, Coach instills in us ‘the Nassau rule,’ ’’ said Donte Howard, who had 13 points on Saturday. “Basically that there’s a big target on our back, so we take a whole lot of pride in that. When we lose, we take it very personally. Everybody wants to beat Nassau.”

And a loss was at the forefront of the team’s mind on Saturday because Nassau fell to Dutchess Community College, 89-70, on Dec. 3.

“This was definitely a [payback] win,” said Timothy Waite, who led the Lions with 19 points. “They punched it on us in the first game, so we had to come back with a vengeance.”

The Lions opened an 11-point lead midway through the second half, but Dutchess cut Nassau’s lead to 65-63 with 2:49 left in the second half. Shane Turner hit a pivotal corner jumper to extend Nassau’s lead to four points with 1:46 left.

“I think that shot was pretty impactful,” Turner said. “The shot clock was going down, it seemed like our team couldn’t get anything going at that moment, so me hitting that shot was a pretty big momentum- shifter.”

Dutchess’ Jeremiah Williams made two free throws to cut the Lions’ lead to 67-65. Turner hit two foul shots to extend their lead to 69-65 as Nassau finished the contest on an 8-1 run.

“I think that’s a confidence- builder for him,” coach A.J. Wynder said. “For him to have the game he had today, that builds confidence for him moving forward. I think he has a big [up] side.”

Turner used halftime to refocus and scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half for the Lions.

“Coach gave us a pep talk and I got amped,” he said. “I went out there and I handled business.”

The Lions used an 11-4 run over 3:45 to take a 24-18 lead with 5:05 left in the first half. Dutchess (10-9) answered with an 11-4 run to take a 29-28 lead with 1:28 left in the opening half. But the Lions scored the final six points of the half, including two layups by Howard off turnovers in the final 15 seconds to take a 34-29 halftime lead.

“Ending the half the way we did fired us up, and we just kept going from there,” Howard said. “We went into the locker room fired up for the second half.”

Sean Walsh (Northport) added 12 points as the Lions had nine different players score.

“This whole depth chart, we all have talent,” Howard said. “Anyone can go off for 20 points on any given night. That’s what makes us so dangerous. It could be a great night for our big man, it could be a great night for any guard. That’s what makes us dangerous: You can’t stop all of our threats.”

And the Lions hope that balanced attack can duplicate the success of previous teams — and go even further.

“Coach tells us every day that winning is a Nassau culture; it’s a part of our culture, so we want to try to live up to that,” Turner said. “We want that championship for Nassau. Everybody wants to win and everyone wants to touch that trophy at the end of the day.”

“We take pride in the culture we built in being Nassau basketball, as we say,” Wynder said. “It’s the culture of winning, being competitive year in and year out. Even though it’s only a two-year school and the turnover is great, the expectation is when we bring in guys, to do what the previous guys did.”

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