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Bulldogs undefeated season basketball team moves to the finals Chris Johnson is the heart and soul of Lindenhurst's boys' basketball team. Whenever the Bulldogs need a clutch point, he's there. Whenever the Bulldogs need a burst of energy, Johnson delivers. Against a feisty Patchogue-Medford team that always seems to control the tempo at home, Johnson ignited the Bulldogs (10-0) with 23 of his 26 points in the second half of 54-46 League I victory. The Bulldogs led 13-12 after the first half and were taking a steady amount of shots, but none were falling in their favor. Johnson, a junior, had four of those 13 points and looked ready to explode. He hit a three point shot at 4:30 of the third quarter behind the left side of the arc to give the Bulldogs a 22-14 lead, and the point margin grew from there. "I've been coaching here for 22 years and he's having one of the best seasons of any player I've ever had," Bulldogs' head coach John Albano said. "Look at our team. You can't have a team this good, unless you have a kid like that. Everybody else benefits from it. He'll move the ball and get other kids shots." The Bulldogs' defensive front was led by junior center Brian Cervantes, who was delivering monstrous blocks and grabbing much needed rebounds throughout the game. He also scored 10 points and was a noticeable threat in the paint as usual. "He's an animal," Albano said. "He's our energizer. Johnson and him combined have so much energy and all our guys feed off it." Pat-Med (3-7) did an excellent job of ball control and held possession for long stretches of time, breaking Lindenhursts offensive rhythm and tiring them out on the defensive side of the ball. "They really make you guard them," Albano said. "You're on defense for a long period of time and you don't have too much time to shoot." The Raiders were led by sophomore Marcus Stroman who scored 20 points and is a dangerous threat no matter who the opponent is. Johnson said the team was focused on him throughout the contest, yet he still broke loose for a plethora of shots. "We knew we had to try and take him out," Johnson said. "If we let him shoot we knew he could kill us. We had to box out and rebound to do well against him and we did both." Johnson led an eight point run mid-way through the second quarter which pushed Lindenhurst ahead 32-16, throwing the Radiers' defense off course. Pat-Med came within eight points with 31 seconds remaining and Nick Couluris stole the ball for a fastbreak, but opted to dunk instead of hitting an easy lay-up and missed. The careless error wasn't the Raiders' last chance. They scored four points in the last 20 seconds but it wasn't enough. With only a week until the playoffs start, Lindenhurst will use its final games as tune-up tests to work all the kinks out. Like any smart contender, though, it isn't looking too far ahead.
"We're taking one game at a time," said Johnson, who is anxious to return to the playoffs, having been there his freshman year. "We'll have a good seed, we just have to keep working hard and playing well as a team. It's going to be exciting." Both Lindenhurst senior Chris Barnes and Pat-Med sophomore Jordan Jackson had 10 points.
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