Boys Basketball: Fox Lane trio shines in road win at Brewster

Left, Will Broghammer fires a pass for Fox Lane. Right, Janak Bain drives to the hoop for the Foxes. JIM MCLEAN PHOTOS

By JIM MACLEAN 

Defense leads to offense, coaches often preach that to their team, and hard work and hustle often pays off.

Fox Lane senior Janak Bain provided a perfect example of that in the fourth quarter Friday night as the Foxes played on the road at Brewster on Jan. 30. Bain came up with a block in the lane on the defensive end, and he raced down the court to finish off a fast break with a lay up on the other end. A sort of exclamation point as the Foxes pulled away for a convincing 61-35 win over the Bears.

The Foxes were hustling all night long, a team effort taking control in the first quarter and finishing strong to close out the win. Bain is one of several Foxes who missed time with injuries earlier in the season, and now the roster is at full strength with leading scorer Arthur Shevick leading the way.

“I’m back, and I was feeling great tonight,” admitted Bain. “We had good ball movement the whole game. They were in a zone, so we just kept finding the open man and running the floor. When they smother Arthur, we’ve just got to keep moving and keep hustling and find the open shots.”

Two days earlier, the Foxes cruised to an 80-39 win at Carmel, making it two-straight wins on the road as Fox Lane improved to 8-7 overall. It was a good sign of what the Foxes are capable of doing with the full line up working together as they hope to finish strong after taking some tough losses in December.

“We’ll take it, we’ve had a tough schedule and we’re slowly getting better every game,” said Fox Lane coach Mike Tomassi. “A great group of guys, working hard, battle tested and we’re finally healthy and the guys are hungry.”

Shevick once again led the team in scoring finishing with a game-high 20 points, but he wasn’t the only one as Bain finished with 16 points and Ethan Mayers was also in double figures with 13 points.

It was Bain early on leading the way as he scored 12 points in the first half. The Foxes trailed 10-9, but Bain scored to give them the lead and Shevick finished off the first quarter with a pair of 3-pointers to make it 17-10.

The Foxes carried the momentum over into the second quarter as five different players scored. Joe Cerone opened the quarter with a hoop with Mayers, Bain, and Shevick each adding a basket for a 16-1 Fox Lane run to take charge. Chris Sanchez hit a 3-pointer, and Mayers nailed a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Foxes a 35-18 lead at the half.

Sebastian Getz started off the second half with a hoop for the Foxes, but Brewster then went on an 8-0 run to cut the lead down to 37-26, but Mayers hit another 3-pointer and Shevick scored 8-straight points as the Foxes closed out the third quarter with a 51-33 lead.

The Foxes shut the door on defense holding the Bears to just 2 points in the fourth quarter, and C.J. Killian closed it out with a 3-pointer for the Foxes.

“Our record doesn’t really showcase how good we can be,” explained Tomassi. “We want to be a good team in February and we’re trending towards that now. We’re more balanced, we’ve got five or six guys who can really play and teams are starting to see that. Early on we were beat up and teams didn’t see our full roster.”

Fox Lane hoped to carry the momentum forward with five games left on the regular season schedule. The Foxes were set to travel to Walter Panas on Feb. 4, and then host rival Horace Greeley on Friday night, Feb. 6.

“One day at a time, we have to win our next practice first,” Tomassi said