Long Beach High School - Echo Yearbook (Long Beach, NY)

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BASKETBALL URING the 1947-48 Basketball Season the Varsity encountered some very rough going, but in an erratic fashion they played some fine basketball. While the overall record of seven wins and eleven losses does not speak highly of its prowess, the team showed flashes of ability on the nights when they were Shot. The result of two games against Central present the most shining example of two good evenings by our five Central, a top notch team, was defeated in two encounters with the Blue and White. However, nights of glory like that one were a scant few for the High School Hoopsters, who had to be satisfied with fifth place in section two of the S. S. A. L. standings. As far as the record goes, the locals opened the season with a 38-34 loss to Lawrence. During the course of the campaign our favorites dropped both engagements to Woodmere, Southside, and Malverne, and split a pair of games with Lynbrook, Oceanside, and East Rockaway. The Suffern Cats journeyed down from Sulfern, N. Y., only to meet

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BALL The season's opener, a non-league affair, played upstate against a tough Washington Irving Eleven, resulted in a good showing for Long Beach but a better one for our opponents, as evidenced by the 19-13 score. After playing to an exciting 6-6 tie with Mal- verne, we came up with our one and only victory of the year against the hard-fighting Woodmere gridders, with a single touchdown providing the margin for a 6-0 victory. Lynbrook, a championship contender all season long, found the Long Beach team, paced by the fine line play of Larry Hayes, one of their tough- est opponents, and were hardpressed to come up with a 19-7 victory. A 26-O pasting at the hands of the champion Southsiders explains itself. The season's finale was a 15-0 loss to East Rockaway, with the winners looking no more impressive than the losers.

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defeat at the hands of our ball-hawksi' to the tune of 38-30. The high point of the season was the teamis week-end trip upstate to Hornell, N. Y. This game gave Long Beach the opportunity to demonstrate the type of ball that had been con- tinually drummed into their heads all season long by Coach Bob Gersten. Although the club was not so confident as it had been in previous en- counters, a surprising brand of both ball-handling and team work, enabled them to come close to one of their biggest upsets of the season, and were it not for the poor officiating, the boys would have come back with a clean sweep of the series, and a psychological shot-in-the-arm. Despite this temporary setback, the team posted an easy victory over a much inferior Corning Squad. Coach Bob Gersten is the man who sweated it out with the team through all the joys and dis- appointments of a competitive sport that he him- self had mastered to a high degree, and is the only one who deserves both our sympathy and praise for the headaches suffered by a basketball coach. Working with what at the beginning of the season was a young and for the most part in- experienced team, he is to be highly commended for the good showing that the courtsters of LONG BEACH HIGH made .... This past season, team honors for high scorer went to Gene Carbona, who had a total of 146 points in 16 games, nosing out Wendell McPhee by 15 points. Gene was also the high individual scorer with. 19 points on two occasions. Bernie Fisher was third in the scoring race with 95 points. Gene Carbona, Billy Ryan, and Vinnie Klemmer, will not be back next season, but aside from the V. men that will be making the jump to the varsity, the team will be molded around Roland Perry, Donny Walters, and Bernie Fisher, Wendell McPhee, and John Nosworthy. Wendell was on the second string V. last year but showed great possibilities. This year he moved up to first string varsity and was one of the stead- iest men on the team. There is no reason why someone else should not duplicate his feat next year. Though next yearis team will miss Gene Carbona's fine play under the boards and Bill Ryan's great floor work, the future L. B. basketball picture still looks good.