Ward Melville’s varsity basketball team needed to win this past week against Longwood to keep the school’s high standard of athletic success alive. They entered the contest under .500 and they wanted to keep pace with league rival’s like Patchogue-Medford and William Floyd as the season continues on.
After a slow first quarter and a more balanced second quarter, the Patriots came out of the half on a mission as they outscored their opponents 17-4 in the third quarter. They took a double digit lead over Longwood and controlled the pace of play that led to a 60-45 road victory for Ward Melville.
The story of the game for the Patriots was senior forward Devin Lynch who had a game high 19 points while adding in five rebounds and four 3-point field goals. Lynch’s offensive outburst turned out to be the difference in this contest.
This was a nice surprise from the Ward Melville senior as he has been averaging nine points per contest so far. This performance was more than double of what he has been producing up to this point in the season.
| Devin Lynch Devin Lynch's HUDL |
Chitkara – a senior shooting guard – outplayed his 12.6 points per game line as he would score 15 points while hitting three 3-pointers in the win.
Beaton – a 6’4” forward – was a menace inside the paint as the big man recorded a double-double as he scored 14 points and pulled down 10 rebounds.
With this win, the Patriots move back up to .500 on the year as they are now 5-5 and they sit in fourth place behind the dominant William Floyd Varsity team, Brentwood – who is 7-1 on the year – and the Patchogue-Medford Red Raiders who have gotten off to a hot start to 2023-24 as well.
The Patriots will have more to prove heading deeper into the month of January as they take on fifth place Sachem East on January 9th. The Patriots then meet up with third place Pat-Med in a highly anticipated shootout between two of the better teams in Suffolk League I.