LAKE HUNTINGTON – In a game that came down to the wire, the Sullivan West Bulldogs were ultimately defeated by the Chapel Field Lions on Friday night, January 26, 51-49. It was a back-and-forth first half in which there were several lead changes, with both teams having trouble holding onto possession of the ball and turning it over. Coach Ronj Padu said that he believes Sullivan West lacked aggression early on. 

“We were just kind of standing at the top, swinging the ball around, instead of putting pressure on their defense,” Padu said. “We didn’t make them guard us by driving and things like that. We got the ball to the paint in the second half.”

Chapel Field sophomore Micah McDuffie hit a three-point buzzer-beater to give the Lions a 20-17 lead going into the locker room. 

The Bulldogs began to play trap defense later into the action, which gave them a bit of momentum and led to turnovers by Chapel Field. 

“It wasn’t as clean as I wanted it to be,” said Padu, “but we were looking for a spark and it provided us with that.”

Both teams were playing strong defense as the second half moved along. Things got a little chippy late in the third as Chapel Field started to pull away a bit, leading 38-32 going into the final quarter. 

Chapel Field held a 42-36 lead with less than four minutes to go in the game, but Sullivan West did not give up. The Bulldogs continued to play press defense which led to several steals and they tied it up at 46 all with 1:20 remaining. Sullivan West had a chance to get possession back with the game still tied, but Evan Ebert was called for a shooting foul on Mikey Bonagura on a shot he blocked. Bonagura would make both free throws to give the Lions a two-point lead. 

As Sullivan West got the ball back, they drove to the paint, hoping to tie the game, but were called with a charging foul to give possession back to Chapel Field. The Bulldogs fouled immediately and both free throws were made by the Lions. Sullivan West struggled to hit layups late which would have given them a better chance at a win. Their defense gave them a shot, but the offense couldn’t finish. 

“Going forward into the rest of the season,” Coach Padu said, “I hope for more execution. We gotta stop missing layups. We missed about three or four layups - that could have been the game right there. So we gotta play more of a complete game offensively and defensively.”

Jacob Hubert, who hit three shots from behind the arc, all in the fourth quarter, hit a buzzer-beater three-pointer as time expired in the game, but that made it 51-49 after Chapel Field had hit a few more from the charity stripe. 

Brandon Haass led all Bulldog scorers with 18 points in the game, as he was 6-of-8 from the field.