Hornets win Giglio Games

The Vincent and Terry Giglio Memorial Scholarship Games is the Super Bowl of the Lakeland Central School District Athletic Department, an all-day basketball affair that includes a freshman boys game, junior varsity girls and boys games, varsity girls and boys game, between the school district’s two high schools, Lakeland and Walter Panas. 

Lakeland boys’ varsity player Mateo Lugo made sure that the day would end with a Hornet win in front of a packed gym with fans from both schools equally represented. Lugo scored a team high 15 points, including two clutch 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, to lead Lakeland to a 52-40 victory on Jan. 31 at Walter Panas. 

“It means a lot to win this game in front of a crowd like this, in front of everybody, to show everyone that we were the better team,” Lugo said. 

Lakeland’s Pat Gibson stood out at the foul line, going 7 of 8 from the charity stripe. 

“It’s an honor for our program,” Gibson said of the triumph. “We put a lot of work in so it’s a big win for us. I’m just happy to help the team out.

“My guards, Mike (Lucia, 4 points, 5 assists) and Anthony (Ray, 9 points, 3 steals) did a really good job of setting me up. And we have so many great bigs, Aidan (Leonard, 2 points), Louis (Murray, 5 points, 9 rebounds), Aadi (Sandu, 4 points, 6 rebounds), and Luke (Lulanaj, 6 points, 6 rebounds), we just have so many great players on our team. Our depth is incredible. I’m just happy how we won today and I’m proud of our team but we got more work to do.”

Shooting well at the line is something the Hornets have seen before from Gibson.  

“Whenever we foul shoot at practice, he’s always like 90, 100 percent, he just has confidence, he practices a lot,” said Lakeland coach Shawn Sullivan. “He has confidence in himself and we have confidence in him.” 

Sullivan, who coached Walter Panas to the Section 1 Class A championship and the Gold Ball in 2014, felt fortunate to get a win against his former team.  

“This has to be one of the best rivalries in the state, so records go out the window like we always say,” Sullivan said. “The kids know each other, it’s just great competition, fun competition, and we are lucky to come out on top of it.” 

After Lakeland led 20-16 at halftime, Lugo scored the first basket of the third quarter, to increase Lakeland’s lead to six. 

“It definitely felt good to get my team going at the beginning of the second half,” Lugo said. “I had four fouls so I couldn’t really do much until the last two minutes of the fourth quarter.” 

Panas, though, came back and cut Lakeland’s lead to one, 28-27, but the Hornets outscored the Panthers 8-2 to end the third quarter and go up 36-29.  

“Our press, we stole it a number of times, and we sped them up, which allowed us to get out and run and score at the other end,” Sullivan said. 

Lakeland sealed the win late in the fourth quarter, with back-to-back Lugo treys giving the Hornets a 50-37 lead. 

“It felt really good to make those, especially in an atmosphere like this,” Lugo said.  

Lugo’s treys from the wing are by design. 

“We hit Mateo twice, with kick out threes which is what we love to do, and when we are running, we are a pretty solid team,” Sullivan said. “We were able to do that.” 

Anthony D’Errico, Joe LaPeruta, CC Savastano, Nick Uribe, Mike Zumatto, Ethan Pomerantz, and Ryan Shilling (assistant coach) also made up the Hornets’ Giglio Games roster.  

Lakeland (8-6) traveled to Eastchester on Jan. 28, coming away with a 48-41 victory, led by Lugo (13 points), Ray (11 points, 3 steals), Gibson (6 points), Murray (6 points, 8 rebounds), Lulanaj (5 points), Lucia (5 points, 5 assists), and D’Errico (2 points).