Wantagh Warriors

2022-23 HERALD High School Basketball Preview WANTAGH

Warriors building off last season

By ANDREW COEN

The Wantagh boys’ basketball team got a taste of the postseason last winter and will look to take another step this winter with an experienced squad. The Warriors return four starters from a team that earned the fi nal playoff spot in Conference A-5. While Wantagh fi nished 3-7 in the league, the team dropped a number of close contests and clinched a fourth-place fi nish with a 44-33 win at Lawrence. “Our record didn’t show how well we played last year as we were in every game,” said secondyear head coach Matt Simeone, whose team gave 11th-seeded Hewlett a scare in the fi rst round of the Class A playoffs before falling 50-44. “We saw we could compete and now we have to build off of that confi dence.” Wantagh brings back much senior Jakai Lester, who averaged 11.2 points per game last year after transferring from St. Dominic. Charlie DeStefano, Ryan Daly and Danny Fisenne also have plenty of experience under their belt after starting last season. Seniors Jake Borgese and Joe Martin became a big part of the Warriors’ rotation toward the end of last season and will see plenty of minutes for their fi nal high school baseball campaign. Senior Nick Cupelli and junior Jack Tate, who Simeone knows well as an assistant coach on the Wantagh football program, are also expected to be big contributors. Wantagh will compete in Conference V this season with Bethpage, Valley Stream North, Floral Park, Plainedge, Lynbrook and Mineola. Simeone said the competition will be tough, but he hopes his roster of top athletes who also have physical toughness can be the difference maker leading to another playoff appearance. “These are tough kids,” said Simeone, a former longtime assistant basketball coach at Friends Academy. “We are trying to get the kids to build off of last year.”

WANTAGH HUNGRY FOR PLAYOFF RUN

The Wantagh girls return most of last year’s team that dropped a fi rst round playoff heartbreaker, but still has big shoes to fi ll. The Warriors’ one graduation loss was a big one in guard Madison Taylor, who averaged 14 points and seven rebounds per game and will be playing college women’s lacrosse at Northwestern in the spring. While this leaves a ton of production to replace, longtime head coach Stan Bujacich will have plenty of talent and depth on the fl oor fueled for a deep postseason run after falling to Hewlett 62-61 in the round of 16 of the Class A playoffs last February. “I think everybody remembers that and is hungry to get back at it,” said Bujacich of the playoff loss in which Hewlett rallied from 10 down entering the fourth quarter. “I like the versatility of our rotation, but the main thing is they’ve experienced a whole season last year.” The four returning starters include Katherine Killian, Skylar Mondelli, Juliana Cerasi and Brighid Smith. Senior guard Ava Kornbluth is also back after missing most of last season following an ACL injury in the second game and brings veteran leadership as a four-year varsity player. Junior guard Lindsey Loor provides more fi repower to the Wantagh offense after moving to Wantagh from Queens, where she was the conference’s leading scorer for the Academy of Music and Television in Long Island City. Loor is among multiple versatile players in the rotation along with Casey Kissinger, Riley Forthofer, Julia Allen and Angela Pellicoro. Meghan Tucker, Sabrina Asadurian and Emily McGeown could also see valuable minutes. “We could go with a lot of different variations of lineups out there,” said Bujacich, who has led the Wantagh program for the past 30 years. “There’s lot of interchangeable parts.” Conference foes include defending county champion Plainedge, runner-up Floral Park and semifi nalist Lynbrook.

Jakai Lester

expected to be big contributors. Wantagh will compete in Conference V this season with Bethpage, Valley Stream North, Floral Park, Plainedge, Lynbrook and Mineola. Simeone said the competition will be tough, but he hopes his roster of top athletes who also have physical toughness can be the difference maker leading to another playoff appearance. a former longtime assistant basketball coach at Friends Academy. “We are trying to get the kids to build off of last year.”

WANTAGH HUNGRY FOR PLAYOFF RUN

The Wantagh girls return most of last year’s team that dropped a fi rst round playoff heartbreaker, but still has big shoes to fi ll. The Warriors’ one graduation loss was a big one in guard Madison Taylor, who averaged 14 points and seven rebounds per game and will be playing college women’s While this leaves a ton of production to replace, longtime head coach Stan Bujacich will have plenty of talent and depth on the fl oor fueled for a deep postseason run after falling to Hewlett 62-61 in the round of 16 of the Class A “I think everybody remembers that and is hungry to get back at it,” said Bujacich of the playoff loss in which Hewlett rallied from 10 down entering the fourth quarter. “I like the versatility of our rotation, but the main thing is they’ve experienced a whole Killian, Skylar Mondelli, Juliana Cerasi and Brighid Smith. Senior

Ava Kornbluth

Schedule

MATT GUILFOYLE BOYS December

13 @ Lynbrook 7:00 p.m. 16 V.S. North 7:00 p.m. 20 @ Floral Park 5:00 p.m.

January

4 Mineola 6:45 p.m. 10 @ Plainedge 5:00 p.m. 13 Bethpage 7:00 p.m. 18 Lynbrook 7:00 p.m. 21 @ V.S. North 12:00 p.m. 27 Floral Park 7:00 p.m.

February

1 @ Mineola 6:45 p.m. 7 Plainedge 5:00 p.m. 10 @ Bethpage 7:00 p.m.

GIRLS December

13 Lynbrook 5:00 p.m. 15 @ V.S. North 5:00 p.m. 20 Floral Park 5:00 p.m.

January

4 @ Mineola 6:15 p.m. 10 Plainedge 5:00 p.m. 13 @ Bethpage 5:00 p.m. 18 @ Lynbrook 5:00 p.m. 21 V.S. North 12:00 p.m. 30 @ Floral Park 5:00 p.m.

February

1 Mineola 5:00 p.m. 7 @ Plainedge 6:45 p.m. 10 Bethpage 5:00 p.m.