Woodhouse leads Harborfields past Amityville
Harborfields' Lucas Woodhouse controls the ball as Amityville's Richie Hobson defends. (Feb. 24, 2012) Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
It's a three-peat.
Lucas Woodhouse scored 21 points to lead top-seeded Harborfields to a 68-64 victory over No. 2 Amityville in the Suffolk Class A final Friday night at Farmingdale State. The game was a rematch of last season's championship game, in which the Tornadoes also eked out a close win.
"We're making team history," said Harborfields coach Chris Agostino, who, for another year, holds bragging rights over his big brother Jack, the Amityville coach. "It's amazing; this is three in a row for us."
Woodhouse had two crucial steals in the waning minutes and Justin Ringen scored 15 points for Harborfields (17-2).
Amityville (16-4) pulled within three on DeJuhan Gray's two free throws, but Woodhouse answered with a 14-foot jumper that made it 61-56 with 2:41 remaining.
Woodhouse later swiped the ball on the perimeter with 1:26 left, got fouled and sank both free throws to make it 63-56. The Warriors pulled within three again on Kavione Green's corner three with 24.1 seconds left, but Ringen's free throws made it 66-61 with 23.2 seconds left.
Harborfields, which reached the state final in 2011, will compete in the Long Island Class A championship game at 5 p.m. March 10 at Hofstra.
"I think this team is better than last year's," Woodhouse said. "We were awesome last season, but I think we're deeper now and better equipped to do great things."
Kevin Zabransky tied it at 38 with a three-pointer from the left wing with 5:48 left in the third quarter, then put Harborfields ahead with a steal and layup at 4:58.
Just when it looked as if Amityville could pull away early -- the Warriors led 20-7 at the end of the first -- Harborfields opened the second quarter on a 12-0 run to pull itself back into it before going ahead with a 27-14 third quarter.
Green scored 13 of his 23 points in the first quarter for Amityville, which led 34-33 at intermission.
"They ran on us and did a good job containing us early," Woodhouse said. "But we went on a run. We owned that third quarter and took control."
