Bayport-Blue Point boys basketball's Chris Gorwitz takes over scoring role in victory over East Islip
Bayport-Blue Point point guard Dylan Craig celebrates his 1,000th career point with his coach, Charlie Peck, during a Suffolk League VII boys basketball game against Southampton on Jan.17. Credit: George A Faella
Dylan Craig filled up the scorebook last season, averaging a Long Island-leading 28.3 points for the Suffolk Class A semifinalists from Bayport-Blue Point. But that point guard is now a lacrosse player at SUNY Cortland, so the Phantoms need another guy to fill up that book.
“I would say I definitely have to fill up for those points because he was having like 28 points a game, so somebody has to fill that role,” Chris Gorwitz said. “I feel I’m fully capable of doing that.”
In the opener Friday at East Islip, the 6-foot junior point guard sure looked as if he could.
Gorwitz nailed five three-pointers and scored 23 points, and the Phantoms walked off with a 49-32 non-league win.
“He’s got to be a scoring point guard,” said Charlie Peck, their 11th-year coach. “He’s the team leader. He’s got to take it under control. But he’s only a junior, so he just has to keep working. He’s got to score. He’s got to defend. He’s got to rebound. He’s got to deliver the basketball.
“We’re going to go as Chris goes.”
Peck wants to go contend for a county title despite losing Craig.
“This might be my best team, but not my most talented team, by January,” Peck said. “We’re big and we move the ball nicely. With a little more practice, I think we could be really good.”
East Islip has one starter back — senior point guard Thomas Buchan — from the team that went to the county AA quarterfinals. Coach Rob Schwender likes the potential of his group, too.
“They’re all coachable,” he said. “They listen. They’re going to try. Right now, we’re in thinking process, not playing process.”
Bayport-Blue Point led by five at the break, then forced six turnovers and opened a 12-point advantage on three occasions in the third quarter.
The margin shrunk to nine early in the fourth. But Declan Schug, who scored 15 points, drilled one of his three shots from beyond the arc for a 37-25 advantage.
Owen Madden, one of three East Islip players with eight points, countered with a jumper.
But Gorwitz responded with a three-pointer from up top and followed with another from the right wing — 43-27. Those were two of the Phantoms’ 10 threes.
“I think that’s our biggest strength,” Gorwitz said.
Before it got away, East Islip trailed 13-11 after one quarter and 21-16 at halftime.
“Growing pains,” Schwender said. “It’s game one.”
