Nothing about the 2012-13 regular season got any easier for coach Peter Rosinski and his Pinkerton Academy boys’ basketball squad last week. The Astros dropped their third and fourth consecutive Division I decisions to Manchester Memorial and Salem during that span, and as a result saw their divisional record slip to a subpar 4-12 with two regular season contests left to go.
In the 63-49 loss to Memorial in the Queen City Tuesday, Feb. 19, the Astros hung tough against the streaking Crusaders (five straight victories) in the first half before being outscored by a 39-29 margin in the second half. Memorial held slim leads of 14-11 after one quarter and 24-20 at the half, but the hosts were up by a full 13 points at 43-30 rolling into quarter number four.
Freshman Luke Rosinski led the Pinkerton offense with 13 points and Cam Welch contributed 10 in the losing effort. Coach Rosinski’s crew put forth an impressive late comeback push in the 67-61 loss to Salem on the road last Friday night, Feb. 22, but the Astros fell just a few notches short of a victory. The host Blue Devils were up by margins of 19-17 after one quarter and 40-29 at the half, and heading into the last eight minutes of the contest they led by a tally of 52-40. But Pinkerton outscored its host by a 21-15 margin in the fourth quarter to make the final score considerably tighter.
The Astros received 56 of their points from four sources, with Scott Bradley netting 20, Luke Testa and Welch each scoring a dozen, and Luke Rosinski collecting 10.
