No title for Spartans

At full strength for the first time in more than a month, second-seeded Westbury avenged a pair of regular-season defeats to No. 1 Elmont and captured the Nassau Class A boys’ basketball championship last Saturday at Hofstra, 45-42.

The Green Dragons used a balanced attack, led by Sheldon Hagigal’s 13 points, to hand the Spartans just their third defeat in 21 games and first since Jan 14. Tyrece Redd added nine points, Lamard Herron had eight and Paris Abrams and Luckens Victor chipped in seven apiece for Westbury (17-4), which never trailed and advances to meet Harborfields in the Long Island Class A title game next Saturday at 1 p.m. at Hofstra.

Senior Dean Walker had 10 points to lead the Spartans, who set a season-low with four points in the opening quarter and tied their season low for points in a half with 14 as well as for a game. Junior Anthony Elechi added eight points and eight rebounds.

“They’re a great team,” Elmont coach George Holub said of Westbury, which last won a county title in the 1999-2000 campaign. “We punched, but they punched back,” he added. “They hit their shots and we missed some shots. We missed some chippies.”

The Spartans trailed 44-34 with 2:46 remaining after Herron’s two free throws but staged a furious rally down the stretch and had a chance to force overtime. Baskets by Walker and junior Dillon Williams cut the margin to six, and Williams answered a Hagigal free throw with a field goal to make it 45-40 with 1:15 to go.

“We played two close games with them during the season and knew it wouldn’t be easy,” said Westbury coach Dave Graff, whose team fell 48-46 to Elmont on Jan. 22 and 74-71 in OT on Jan. 5. “We just managed to make enough plays at the end to pull this one out.”

Senior Dominique Williams, who scored in double figures in playoff victories over Bethpage, Jericho and Hewlett, sliced his way to the basket with less than a minute to play to cut Westbury’s lead to 45-42, but the Green Dragons made a huge defensive stop after the Spartans got the ball back with 22.7 seconds remaining to hold on for the win.

“We got beat on the boards,” Holub said. “We didn’t take care of boxing out and gave them too many second chances.”

Numerous shot clock malfunctions, poor shooting and a lack of rebounds contributed to a nightmarish start for the Spartans. Only Walker and senior Chris Fincher managed to score in the opening quarter, and Elmont trailed 13-6 with 4:06 to go in the half before the offense finally found a groove.

“We never got into a flow [in the first half],” Holub said. “We had a great season. We accomplished a lot. We just didn’t accomplish this last thing.”