Robert Pericolosi sparks South Side to win over Kings Park in Long Island Class A championship game
South Side's Robert Pericolosi moves the ball in the first quarter during the Long Island Class A boys basketball championship against Kings Park on Saturday, March 11, 2023, at Stony Brook. Credit: Bob Sorensen
South Side has written one more chapter in what’s becoming a storybook boys basketball season.
Ignited by Robert Pericolosi’s 12-point first quarter the Cyclones on Saturday added the most significant win in a run of 24 consecutive victories as they pushed past Kings Park and a herculean performance by Matty Garside to post a 45-31 triumph in the Long Island Class A championship game at Stony Brook’s Island Federal Arena.
South Side (24-1) is Long Island champion for the second time and first time since 1978. Their scintillating tale next takes it to Glens Falls, N.Y., for Friday’s 7:45 p.m. state semifinal at Cool Insuring Arena.
The Cyclones will be seeking their second trip to the state championship game and first since 1987 when no Island Class A title game was played. Instead the Cyclones played the Westchester champ.
“This has been in our sights all along,” Josh Garelle said. “We wanted it to happen and we thought that if we could get past [defending state champion] Manhasset, we could get upstate and do something special.”
“We feel like we can be a team making history,” James Bivona said. “We want to do something no South Side team could do.”
The ’Clones trailed for only 14 seconds in this one, but couldn’t shake the Suffolk champion Kingsmen and their 6-3 star until the fourth quarter. Garside was a singular force, racking up 27 of Kings Park’s 31 points with an array of three-point shots and spinning drives to the basket.
“No one can stop Garside,” South Side coach Jerry D’Angelo said. “We just tried to make every shot he took as tough as we could.”
Pericolosi finished with 14 points, but his first quarter effort was a tone-setter that beckoned the rest of the Cyclones to meet the moment.
“Rob is a leader,” D’Angelo said. “He took the initiative to make this his game.”
“Everyone fed off his energy after that start,” James Bivona said. “He’s capable of going off and you saw it right there at the beginning.”
Garelle scored 14 points including six in the third quarter when South Side managed to stretch a three-point halftime lead out to 33-27. Bivona, who had eight points, capped the third quarter with a three-pointer and then opened the fourth-quarter scoring with another on the arc for a nine-point lead.
Garside usually has a number of scoring teammates to open the floor for him, but the other Kingsmen struggled against South Side’s quick defense. As a result Kings Park (17-8) became slightly one-dimension and Garside found himself in the middle of collapsing defenses when he drove to the basket.
“We had to deny Garside because he was the one really hurting us,” Pericolosi said, “and, for us, defense is the thing that comes naturally.”
Thomas Matonti sank a driving layup with 4:15 to play to get the Kingsmen within 38-31, but that was the last basket they would score as the Cyclones zeroed in. After Kings Park went to a fouling strategy, Garelle and Bivona each hit both ends of one-and-ones to make it 44-31 with 50.7 seconds left.
“Beating Kings Park is an accomplishment because they play so hard,” D’Angelo said. “The most impressive thing about how we played though was the unselfishness on offense and the great rotations on defense. To hold them to 31 [points] speaks to how well we were on the defensive end.”
The final period completed this chapter, this first state tournament game in the 2022-23 South Side storybook. There is more to be written upstate. One down, two to go.
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.
