With a dominating second half performance, the Western scholastic men’s basketball team came from behind to beat Long Island, 67-55.

Western trailed 26-21 at halftime, and were behind by as many as eight at multiple times in the first half, but came out firing after the break led by Irondequoit’s Josiah Heath and St. Joe’s Connor Rehbaum.

“I think we were a little nervous at the beginning,” Western head coach Mike Haskell  said. “At halftime, we focused on getting the ball inside so we could use our size advantage.

“The toughest thing is this is the first time we’re seeing (Long Island) and you can’t get much of a read on these guys during warm-ups,” he added.

Western came out of the break quick with Alexander Tanea hitting a three to cut the lead in half to 30-27. After a defensive stop, Heath had a chance to tie the game after he scored and was fouled, but missed the free throw. But, it wouldn’t be long before Western took the lead for good.

On the next possession, Batavia’s Andrew Hoy hit a jumper from the wing to give them a 31-30 lead at about the 16:45 mark, but it was another three-pointer from Tanea that extended the lead to four that seemed to rattle Long Island.

It was at this point in the game that finally saw the Western team break down a Long Island half-court pressure defense.

“It’s tough because we have 10 guys that have 10 different systems they’ve learned to break things down,” Haskell said. “We were a little shaky at times controlling the ball, we were dribbling too much, but we did a better job of that in the second half. The trap still bothered us a bit, though.”

From that point on, it was the Heath show, as the big man controlled the glass, scoring on multiple put-back opportunities. When he wasn’t scoring, it was Rehbaum, whose back-to-back buckets late in the half put the game away, pushing the lead to 10.

An emphatic dunk by Heath put the exclamation point on the win with less than a minute to go, while free throws iced for the Western squad.

“They were pressing us, and I just told my teammates they were leaving me wide open,” Heath said. “I got the ball, saw an opening and just went for it. It felt great.”

Heath had 16 points and 15 rebounds, while Rehbaum had 13, scoring 10 in the latter half. In a less than flattering first half, Rehbaum hit a ridiculous, circus-shot three-pointer as he was falling out of bounds.

“I tipped it toward the sideline, and saw my teammates already running to get back on defense,” Rehbaum said. “I had no other option so I kind of threw it up there.”

Rebounding arguably kept them in the game in first half, as Western couldn’t really put together much on offense, while struggling mightily against the trap. Heath and Rehbaum both agreed dominating the glass was a key component to the win.

“We did a great job limiting their second-chance opportunities with out size,” Rehbaum said.

Tanea added 10, including a couple of big second-half three pointers. Canisius’ Aaron Nevins logged some big minutes in the second half and did a pretty good job stabilizing the offense.

Western will play Central tomorrow at 6 p.m. The Western men’s open team will also play Central, following the scholastic game.