Alex Sobel, Ward Melville grind out win over Patchogue-Medford

Points were at such a premium that when the game was over, all Ward Melville center Alex Sobel could do was shake his head, look at the scoreboard and mutter, “40 points!”

Actually, he slightly short-changed his team. Sobel, the Patriots’ 6-8 center, had 17 points, 13 rebounds and six blocked shots to lead Ward Melville to a difficult, hard-nosed 43-33 victory over host Patchogue-Medford on Friday night.

“It was a physical League I, grind-it-out defensive game,” Ward Melville coach Alex Piccirillo said.

Both teams played switching, trapping man-to-man defense as Ward Melville (6-2) slipped past Patchogue-Medford (5-3) in the Suffolk I standings.

“There a lot of good teams in League I, so this was a big win for us if we want to win the league title,” Sobel said. “We were one game away last year.”

Sobel filled the stat sheet the hard way, having to battle a pair of 6-6 forwards, Noah Stevenson (13 points, three blocks) and Nathaniel Ormond.

“They had two monsters inside” is how Piccirillo characterized the matchup. “We base our team offense on being inside-out, going through Alex. He’s the best-passing big man on Long Island.”

Sobel said that skill was born out of necessity. “I knew I’d be more of the main option on offense so I’d be getting double- and triple-teamed,” the senior said. “It’s going to get clogged in the middle, so it’s either take a harder shot or pass it out.”

It wasn’t his passing that lifted the Patriots in this one, though. His solid footwork enabled him to get inside shots and put Stevenson and Ormond on the bench several times with foul trouble.

Nevertheless, the Raiders hung around. When Patrick Delle cave nailed his second three-pointer early in the fourth quarter, it brought Patchogue-Medford within 30-26.

Then Ray Grabowski (six of his nine points in the fourth quarter) scored inside and converted a free throw and Sobel turned for two at the rim to make it 35-26 with 3:48 to play.

The Raiders had one more burst — on an up-and-under move by Stevenson and a bank shot after a pump fake by Cameron Champman — that made it 35-30 with 2:40 left.

The Patriots then paraded to the foul line, and Sobel and Grabowski went 3-for-4 to ice a game that featured cold shooting all night.

Still, Piccirillo insisted, “Both teams have several really good shooters, so there was no reason to sit in a zone. I like to say that we’re versatile. We can go fast or we can grind it out.”

Sobel said a game like this one “is not as much fun, but it’s more satisfying to shut down a team that can score 90.”

On this night, though, the teams didn’t reach that total combined.