The Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks were going through their first rough patch of the season.

Entering the game having lost three straight, the Goldbacks got back in the win column with an 81-56 win over the Pine Bush Bushmen in Wednesday’s Orange County Athletic Association Division I boys’ basketball game.

“It feels great,” said Elnathan Johnson, who led the Goldbacks with 14 points. “We had a rough patch, but now we’re figuring it out.”

The Goldbacks hadn’t won since they beat Middletown, 56-52, on Jan. 5. Since then, they’ve lost a divisional game to the Monroe-Woodbury Crusaders, they’ve also lost at North Rockland and at John Jay-East Fishkill on Jan. 22.

There are 13 players on the Goldbacks’ roster, and only three of them have any varsity experience.

“We have a really young team,” Johnson said.

“People have got to get used to the speed of varsity basketball. Once, everybody gets up to speed when everybody buys into what we’re trying to do, we’re good.”

The Goldbacks had an opportunity on Wednesday to display their depth as Johnson led a group of five players to reach double digits.

Behind Johnson, Ethan Tyson added 13 points and Jakari Lamb added 12. Alejandro Florentino scored 12 points and Shaun Gonzalez scored 10 points.
“We have basketball players that can put the ball in the basket,” Newburgh coach Jason McAllister said. “We just have to learn to get out of our own way and get out of our own heads. If we just keep it simple, we have like the potential to go nine or 10 deep as we showed today.”

They showed they can recover from a slow start.

The game was tied at 9-9 when Johnson hit a jumper to give the Goldbacks an 11-9 lead with 2:03 remaining in the first quarter.

They never trailed again, even though Pine Bush’s Kahmar Evan hit a free throw to cut the Newburgh lead to a single point. However, the Goldbacks used the last 1:37 of the first quarter to go on an 8-0 run to finish the first quarter with a 19-10 lead.

The Goldbacks’ defense limited the Bushmen to seven points in the second quarter, opening the period with a 7-0 run to take a 26-10 lead with 5:55 left in the second quarter, prompting Pine Bush coach Rob Lawrence to call a timeout.

“It’s all about the next play mentality,” McAllister said. “The approach to the game is never about the other team. It’s about what we can control, which is effort, energy, rebounding, taking charges, and I think we executed that pretty well today. That led to us winning the game.”

The Goldbacks will begin their second run through the division on Feb. 6 when they visit the Middletown Middies. Wednesday’s game was originally scheduled to be their second meeting against the Bushmen, but the Jan. 19 game was postponed due to inclement weather. It will be played Feb. 8.

“I’m confident in us and for the rest of the year,” Johnson said. “I feel like we should be we should be good.”