East Meadow rallies for clutch win

East Meadow’s playoffs hopes appeared all but dead as it faced a nine-point deficit during the fourth quarter of Monday night’s game against Westbury, the team that owned the fourth and final playoff spot in its conference. But a miraculous comeback would resuscitate those dreams.

Nabeel Sheihk drilled the go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:19 left to cap a clutch run and the Jets held off a furious last possession by Westbury for a heart-stopping 64-63 win. The victory moved East Meadow, which had a 13-3 spurt, a half-game ahead of the Green Dragons for the final postseason berth in Conference AA2.

Jayden Henriquez had a team-high 17 points and two key steals to ignite the run for East Meadow (7-10, 4-6 conference), which has won consecutive games following a four-game losing streak. It also avenged a 66-65 defeat at Westbury on Dec. 22.

East Meadow visited conference-leading Baldwin on Wednesday before concluding the season against last-place Valley Stream Central on Saturday.

Westbury held a 60-51 lead Monday night with 4:29 left when Henriquez stole a pass entering the paint. That set up Manjot Singh’s basket from down low to cut the deficit to seven. Just under a minute later, Henriquez stole the ball from a stumbling Westbury guard and was fouled on his ensuing drive. He hit both free throws to make it 60-55 and then converted another layup on the Jets’ next possession to make it a three-point game.

The Green Dragons hit a free throw with 3:11 left to make it 61-57 and the teams traded baskets in the next minute before Frank DeStephano converted two free throws with 2:06 remaining to again pull East Meadow within two. On the winning basket, Sheihk’s pump fake beyond the left arc caused the Westbury defender to jump past him, and the senior hit the now-uncontested shot to send his home gym into a frenzy.

Westbury spent the final 30 seconds in the East Meadow zone but couldn’t get the winning score thanks to some tough defense by Singh and Dan Fischer, who drew a jump ball with 11 seconds left and DeStephano, who tied up a Westbury forward underneath the basket as time expired.

The Jets’ playoff aspirations almost didn’t come to fruition after a 1-6 start, but a four-game winning streak that started with a season-turning road win against playoff-bound Calhoun (12-6) gave the team some optimism. East Meadow then lost four in a row before snapping the skid with a 73-31 victory over Hicksville on Feb. 4.

“That [Calhoun] game was critical,” head coach Tom Rottkamp said last weekend. “We caught Calhoun’s team unaware and unenergetic because they’re thinking, ‘Oh, we’re 6-0 and East Meadow is [1-6],’ so they did not come ready to play.”

The Jets’ season is even more impressive with four new starters in the lineup, with Sheihk the only holdover. Singh, who had 16 points on Monday, is averaging just under 13 points a game and Henriquez is just behind at 12.2.

“If we end up with eight wins and a playoff berth, we have definitely exceeded expectations,” Rottkamp declared.