Lawrence Woodmere boys basketball's Hank Williams scores 14 third-quarter points in big win
Lawrence Woodmere Academy’s Josh Smith shoots from long distance as Lawrence Woodmere Academy defeated Stony Brook School 90-58 in boy’s basketball Lawrence Woodmere Academy in Woodmere, New York on Dec. 5, 2023 Credit: Patrick E. McCarthy
No one was going hungry on the Lawrence Woodmere Academy boys basketball team Tuesday night. When Lawrence Woodmere is hitting shots, the team correlates that success to eating a meal. And especially in the third quarter, the Tigers were feasting.
Lawrence Woodmere Academy scored 34 points in the third quarter en route to a 90–58 home victory over the Stony Brook School in PSAA boys basketball.
Lawrence Woodmere (4-1, 4-0 PSAA) turned a 38-27 halftime lead into a 72-47 advantage entering the fourth quarter.
“We just want to make sure everyone gets their food,” said Hank Williams, a freshman guard, while standing next to fellow guard Joshua Smith.
“We’re trying to look for everybody and make sure they get their food. If I eat, he eats. If [Josh] eats, someone else eats. We all eat together and that’s how we won this game today.”
Williams scored 14 of his 20 points in the third quarter and Smith had nine of his 22 points in the third quarter. Williams was especially dangerous from the outside, knocking down six three-pointers, including four in the third quarter.
“If someone makes two in a row, we keep feeding him,” Williams said. “If I make two in a row, keep feeding me. We were looking for each other all over the court.”
This year’s Lawrence Woodmere team has a lot of new faces. But Williams returns off a strong season as an eighth grader. The team is coached by his father, who also goes by Hank Williams.
“When things are clicking and they play together, anything can happen because we have five scorers on the floor,” said the elder Hank Williams. “And one thing that’s helping us is we have Hank back from last year, who as an eighth grader averaged 18 points a game and shot the lights out the ball. So this year [opposing teams] are worried about him, but we also have a lot of new and talented players, so I think that’s working now.”
Caleb Ourigou added 12 points, Christopher Clark had 10 points and Sylvanus Tabe and Nil Rahola each had nine points. Dylan Kopp had 19 points for the Stony Brook School (3-1).
“We came out the [second] half looking to attack,” Smith said.“We stayed focused, stayed on the go and were just looking for everybody. We were playing unselfish basketball and that’s what wins games.”
The Tigers have a strong combination of size and speed as they look to compete for a PSAA championship.
“We just want to go out there and win,” said Willams, the freshman guard. “We don’t care who’s in front of us or who the competition is, we just want to go out there and play our hardest and win every game.”
The elder Williams is pleased with the team’s start to the season. But he hopes it’s just the beginning.
“I’m happy, but I’m hungry,” he said. “We’re still very, very hungry and we know it’s a long way to go. Hopefully, without any injuries, we should be getting better and better and that’s my goal as a coach.”
Neither father nor son Hank Williams are full yet.
