NORTH HAVEN — The Lyman Hall Trojans were defeated by the North Haven Nighthawks 43-39 on Friday night in a SCC boys basketball game decided by offensive rebounds and personal fouls.
“The rebounding has been an Achilles heel for us lately,” Lyman Hall head coach Rob Ruys said. “They got a lot of points off of that.”
North Haven evened up at 8-8 with the win. Lyman Hall fell to 6-9.
Junior Adam Pandolfi paced North Haven with 11 points. Tyler Casey scored a game-high 15 points for the Trojans and fellow seniors Chace Sealy (9) and Cam Pragano (8) also factored into the LH attack.
The first quarter was a low-scoring affair with both teams exchanging layups. Senior Eli Dineen started the scoring to put the Trojans up 4-2. However, North Haven was able to deliver on an offensive rebound to tie the game 6-6 going into the second quarter.
There, the Nighthawks started to pull away after several layups by Pandolfi. Lyman Hall also gave up a few shooting fouls that helped North Haven forge a 19-14 lead at halftime.
Come the second half, Casey and Sealy started to heat up for LH.
“They are both scorers,” Ruys said. “They were both looking for shots and ultimately they were aggressive after the half. Chase and Ty are two of our best offensive players.”
Casey led the comeback attempt first by getting two buckets to cut the deficit to two. After North Haven pulled away to a five-point lead, Casey scored a critical 3-pointer to cut the Nighthawks' lead to 24-22.
On the next possession, Pragano hit a 3-pointer to give the Trojans their first lead since the first quarter, 25-24.
Ruys credited the defense for bringing Lyman Hall back into the game.
“We switched up defenses a bit and we were able to stymie them for a bit,” Ruys said. “We executed very well.”
In the fourth quarter, Sealy came up strong, scoring eight of his nine points.
Unfortunately for he and the Trojans, however, North Haven was able to pull away after getting several critical turnovers and free throw attempts down the stretch.
“We just need to be a little more patient on offense,” Ruys said. “Overall, I thought we ran it pretty well. For the most part, we executed very well and we played hard. I’m proud of them tonight.”
The Trojans host Jonathan Law (12-3) at Lyman Hall High School on Tuesday.