51.0°,
Light Drizzle Rocks fall in triple OT thriller
Expectations weren’t lofty for East Rockaway when the boys’ basketball season got underway back in December, but the Rocks proved to be a worthy opponent each and every time they took the floor. They picked up seven wins, and earned the No.3 seed in the Nassau Class B playoffs.
Despite a remarkable effort, the Rocks fell just short of a trip to the Nassau County Class B title game with a heartbreaking 72-66 triple overtime loss in the semifinals to No. 2 Wheatley at LIU-Post last Saturday night. Senior Kevin Blessington scored a career-high 25 points and pulled down 14 rebounds for East Rockaway.
Wheatley, the defending Class B champions, got 24 points from Andrew Tripi and 16 from junior Sam Fieldman. The Wildcats advanced to the Class B championship game where they will take on No. 1 Malverne this Friday at 1 p.m.
East Rockaway struggled in the early going, and spent most of the opening half trying to find its game. Wheatley ran out to a 34-19 lead midway through the second quarter, but, with the game seeming to be slipping away, the Rocks battled back to cut the lead to 34-25 at the break.
Head coach Joe Lores credited his kids for withstanding Wheatley’s first-half run. “We bent, but we didn’t break,” Lores said. “We were having trouble getting into any flow on offense, and weren’t picking up our man on defense. Once we slowed them down a bit, we got ourselves back in it. We put ourselves in position to win the game.”
The Rocks trailed for nearly the entire second half, and saw Wheatley build a 12-point lead, but the orange-and-black wouldn’t go away. A 9-0 run was highlighted by junior Dom DeRosa stripping the ball from Wheatley point guard Joshua Hyon and going the length of the court for a layup to tie the score at 51 with just under four minutes to play.
Wheatley took a three-point lead at 55-52 on a basket by Fieldman, but DeRosa came through again, this time hitting a three from the left wing to send the game to overtime.
In each overtime period, the Rocks found different ways to keep the dream alive. Blessington, who earned All-County honors, hit on an old-fashioned three-point play to force a second overtime. Free-throw shooting from Blessington and Damian Amirudden tied things up to send the game into the third.
After taking a 70-66 lead late in the third overtime, the Wildcats struggled from the line and kept the Rocks within striking distance. DeRosa and sophomore Danny Fusco, who earned All-Conference honors, each scored 15 points.
Lores was happy with the effort. “After making a few adjustments in the second half, we really got after it,” Lores said. “We had a real nice run. I told the guys how proud of their effort I was. The best compliment I could give them was that they played like Rocks.”
