Mount Sinai hangs on to outscore Rocky Point

The Mount Sinai Mustangs put their patented resiliency and toughness on display on the road this week.

Even after an 11-point Rocky Point run late in the second quarter to pull within five points, Mount Sinai’s boys’ basketball team battled back and hung on for a 53-40 nonleague win on the road Dec. 13.

The Mustangs put together a near perfect first quarter, creating easy layups and racking up points off put-backs to pull ahead 19-9.

“I like the way we started the game — I thought we came out pretty strong,” Mount Sinai head coach Ryan McNeely said, although he was disappointed with the run his team let up. “The same kind of thing happened when we played Riverhead at home last week. We jumped on them early, they made a little run and then we came back again, so I think the boys are good with that. They’re an experienced group. They’re resilient, tough kids.”

After the 11-0 run, Mount Sinai sophomore forward Nick Pintabona swished two free throws with 3.3 seconds left before halftime to end a scoring drought that lasted more than five minutes. Despite the spree, Mount Sinai maintained a 28-21 advantage.

“We kept our composure, we keep a level head,” Mount Sinai senior center Harrison Bak said. “They got a little scrappy, but we kept cool, came back and won by 13.”

Bak came out to score the first two points of the third on a layup, with an assist from senior point guard Nick Rose. Minutes later, Bak tacked on a 3-point play to further stem the tide.

“We faced that adversity where we weren’t hitting shots, and then we made a good run,” Rose said. “I think we were playing really strong. We had a bunch of guys crashing for the rebounds. We were getting the easy put-backs, they were fouling us, we were getting to the free-throw line.”

The Mustangs outscored the Eagles 17-10 in the quarter, and that momentum propelled the team through the fourth, hanging onto the lead despite being edged out 9-8.

Senior forward Cole Harkins led Mount Sinai with 13 points, Bak had 11 points and 13 rebounds, and Rose chipped in 11 points with five assists and eight rebounds.

The Mustangs thought their showing on the defensive-side of the ball was effective, holding Rocky Point to under 50 points, but Harkins said he would’ve liked to see his team box out more, and Rose would like to limit the fouls and play better over the screens.

The team focused on holding down Rocky Point’s top scorer, senior Alec Rinaldi. The Mustangs made several big blocks, forced turnovers and limited Rinaldi, but the guard still scored 16 points to lead all scorers.

The Mustangs improved to 4-0 thus far in all nonleague games, and will play two league games before Christmas break.

McNeely said despite the league growing stronger with the new additions of Southampton and Wyandanch, his team has been playing together all offseason, which might explain its strong start.

“I think that experience is starting to show,” he said. “We’re shooting the ball well. We’re shooting the 3-point shot real well. We have some good guards and we have some good, big guys and we have guys that can kind of play both positions.”

Rose said the team has already been tested, which he sees as a positive.

“It was important that they started to come back because we stuck with it — we faced that adversity where we weren’t hitting shots, and we made a good run,” he said. “I want to make the playoffs and I want to make a little run in the playoffs. I think getting there will be our hardest task, but there’s a bunch of teams in our league that we can really get after on defense and attack on offense, and I think it should produce some wins for us.”