South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
O’Connell gets 700th win as Scots roll in 2nd half
After a sluggish first half that saw host St. Andrew’s take a 25-22 halftime lead over visiting Pine Crest, Scots boys basketball coach John O’Connell wasn’t certain if his 700th career coaching victory would have to wait another day.
Only one night before, St. Andrew’s forced overtime against unbeaten North Broward Prep (17-0) before falling 49-41.
The Scots ( 1 7- 4 ) , however, came out blazing in the second half as they held Pine Crest scoreless for 6 minutes, 3 seconds, and outscored the Panthers 30-11 to give O’Connell his milestone victory with a 55-33 win on Friday night.
“That was a battle last night going into overtime with North Broward Prep and an undefeated team,” said O’Connell, who was showered with two buckets of shredded paper confetti and balloons following the victory.
“I think we came out a little flat,” O’Connell lamented. “It also hurt that [senior power forward] Dylan Rogers broke his nose last night. He is one of our leading scorers and our leading rebounder. He’s a captain and that’s big losing Dylan.”
The Scots broke open a tight game in the third quarter by scoring the final eight points to go into the fourth quarter with a 39-28 advantage. St. Andrew’s cruised to the win as junior power forward Andrew Sineway scored 12 of his game-high 14 points in the second half.
Senior small forward Charlie May and junior forward Sam Ndu scored 12 and 10 points respectively for the Scots in the win. Pine Crest (5-12) was led by junior guard Frankie Vassalluzzo, who scored nine points on three 3-pointers.
“I just think we came out a little flat and as a coaching staff we tried to figure out a few things that were going to work,” O’Connell said. “We were looking for something that was going to energize us and get us going. We figured it out in the third quarter and it worked. We kind of woke up.”
O’Connell, who has been the Scots’ coach for 37 years, said getting the milestone was special.
“It’s hard to say,” O’Connell said. “I try to say this isn’t important. It’s about the kids and making sure they have a great season. Hopefully, they will overachieve, reach the goals we want to reach. I got to admit, selfishly, I wanted this bad. I really did. This is special.
“My dad [Dick O’Connell] coached 45 years in New Jersey [Rutgers Prep] at the same school and won 705 games,” said O’Connell, 62, who is one of only 10 coaches in the state to accomplish 700 wins. O’Connell’s father passed away in 2014. If he were to get to 706 victories, it would mean closing in on a second state championship. They won in 2020.
“We have goals and hopefully we haven’t peaked yet and we can’t be flat,” O’Connell said. “I think we were flat the first half and we can’t afford that anymore the rest of the season. Hopefully, we get Dylan back as soon as possible. If we want to move on and get close to the 706, we are going to have to peak at the right time and can’t have any flat moments.”