Jensen Weingard, Chris Bradberry help Port Washington rally past Westbury
Jensen Weingard of Port Washington surveys the court during a Nassau Conference AA-II boys basketball game against Westbury at Port Washington on Tuesday. Credit: James Escher
Port Washington has been the Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde of Nassau Class AA boys basketball this season. In some stretches, the Vikings play tenacious defense and has crisp passes for open looks at the basket on offense. In others, they look slow and out of sync.
After recovering from a horrific start on Tuesday night — a 10-point deficit in the first quarter — host Port Washington got its act together against Westbury and posted a 50-37 AA-II victory. There are two regular season games left and three weeks until the postseason opener. The Vikings have that much time to decide who they want to be.
“When we are the good team, we hustle and find the open man and you see our heart,” junior guard Jensen Weingard said. “That’s us playing our best basketball. But then there are these stretches of four or five minutes where we get lazy and play with our heads down. We have yet to be the best version of ourselves for 32 minutes and that’s what we need to be in the playoffs.”
Weingard and senior guard Chris Bradberry were the sparks in bringing about the personality change when they came off the bench in the final two minutes of the first quarter.
The Vikings (13-4, 6-2) were the worst version of themselves in the early going against the Dragons (7-8, 2-6). Westbury dictated the pace of play and rode the combination of 6-3 senior Herrick Sainbert inside and sophomore swingman Omar Brisbane outside as it moved to a 14-4 lead early.
In the last minute of the quarter Weingard made the first of three three-pointers and Bradberry made a layup off a nice feed from Christian Schwirzbin to get it to 14-9. Then with Bradberry making an array of defensive plays, Port Washington outscored the Dragons 20-2 in the second quarter.
“I love coming off the bench and then shutting down the other team’s top player,” Bradberry said. “On the bench, you can get a feel for what [he] is trying to do and then I come in and take it away.”
Westbury never got closer than 36-29 in the second half.
“The team that played the second quarter tonight is our real personality,” Weingard said. “The issue for us might be staying focused. We are all serious about basketball and winning. We have to keep the focus through a whole game.”
For Port Washington, Dylan Trenaman also had 10 points and Jacob Katz and Matt Schmitz added nine points and eight points, respectively. Brisbane and Stanley Magloire each scored 10 for Westbury.
“It’s been a little confounding that we can be two very different teams,” Port Washington coach Sean Dooley said. “I see how good we can be and then there are moments where we’re in a fog. We have to get consistent.”
The first Nassau Class AA postseason games are Feb. 26 and both Weingard and Bradberry believe that gives the Vikings enough time to settle on a single persona that is the best version of itself.
“The gap before the playoffs gives us the time we need to become that team that plays the 32-minute complete game,” Weingard said. “I believe our group is motivated to do it.”
Added Bradberry: “We are not a finished product by far. We need to keep our intensity from start to finish at practice so we develop faster. There is no time left for laziness — only hard work.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
