Luke Chitkara, Lorenzo Beaton lead way as Ward Melville rebounds with win
Ward Melville's Luke Chitkara puts one up over Riverhead's Connor Levasseur in the third quarter during a Suffolk boys basketball game against Riverhead on Thursday at Ward Melville. Credit: Bob Sorensen
It may seem early in the boys basketball season for a team to be desperate for a win, but that’s exactly what Ward Melville was on Thursday.
The Patriots have skills and work well together. What they don’t have is a lot of varsity experience, and that showed up on Tuesday when they followed a close loss to Suffolk II frontrunner Floyd by stumbling at home against Patchogue-Medford.
Ward Melville did a self-correction and found a better head space during the next two days, then rode that to a 66-55 victory over Riverhead at the Patriots’ Foley Gymnasium on Thursday.
“Today we had better energy and a better attitude,” said Lorenzo Beaton, a captain and one of the three players who entered the season with varsity experience. “When your shots don’t fall, you react by getting angry. You can get into a bad mindset. But that’s something we can control.”
Luke Chitkara scored 18 points, including four three-pointers, and Beaton added 14 points and 13 rebounds for Ward Melville (8-4, 4-4). Devin Lynch contributed 11 points and Aidan Kilduff had four points and four assists off the bench in the second half.
“Our team is young and handling [adversity] was a problem,” Chitkara said. “Today we didn’t let anything get in the way of being ready for the next play.”
Chitkara, one of the nine new varsity players, said making his first shot set him on course for the strong performance “because it makes all the tension and nerves go away.”
In the early going, Riverhead (2-10, 2-6) showed grit that hadn’t shown up in its record. Then, with the score tied 20-20 in the second quarter, Neelesh Raghurama hit a three-pointer to start an 8-0 run that also included a three-pointer by Chitkara.
The Patriots then used their crisp passing offense and three-point shooting to keep the Blue Waves at arm’s length the rest of the way.
Ward Melville had 15 assists on 31 baskets. Said Beaton, “It’s our motto: Make the extra pass.”
Amari Funn had 20 points and Markus Grigg added 10 points for Riverhead.
“Our league is pretty [unforgiving],” Ward Melville coach Alex Piccirillo said. “If there’s a game where you don’t play well, you’re going to get clipped . . . They were mentally there in this game, and that can be the difference.”
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.
