Malverne's playoff streak in jeopardy

Could a decades-long playoff streak be coming to an end for the Malverne boys’ basketball team?
The defending county ‘B’ champs have dropped eight of 10 after a 2-2 start to fall among a crowded pack fighting for at least 12 spots in the Conference A playoff field next month. A .500 or better conference record would be good enough to qualify. Malverne has not missed the postseason since 1972.
After beating winless Lawrence on Jan. 10 to snap a four-game losing streak, Malverne dropped a tough 48-44 contest at Island Trees last Saturday to square its Conference A7 record at 3-3 and drop its overall mark to 4-10. Chad Wesley had 11 points and Nicholas Brown added nine for the Mules, who were up 22-20 at halftime despite trailing 14-4 after the first quarter.
“Basically, we didn’t get any scoring from anybody really,” lamented associate coach Walter Aksionoff hours after the game. “Chad led us today with 11 points and the other bigs only gave us seven, six [points]. Those guys should be giving us 20 points combined and we’ve not been getting that.”
Wesley is averaging 15 points a game – by far the best on the team – and owns the only two 20-point games by a Mule this season. His season high of 24 in a 65-52 loss against Westbury on Dec. 27 was one more than his total in a 67-62 win over Seaford on Dec. 13.

From there, there is no other Malverne player averaging in double digits. Senior Kevin Estime has the next-highest mark at 8.9 and has shown the ability to take over games as evidenced by his 14-point, 16-rebound performance against Seaford and another double-double (15-10) in the Mules’ win over Clarke on Dec. 21.
William Hartley (6.3 ppg) came close to a double-double twice, including a 10-point, nine rebound game against Lawrence. Those points topped the team on a day where the Mules had 13 different players hit shots.
The next-highest marks belong to Brown, Zavion Daniels – who also keyed the Seaford win by drilling a tie breaking 3-pointer with 41 seconds left – and Amarii Sylvester at 4.8 apiece, with fellow seniors Jordan Blue and Jake Walsh just behind at 4.5 on a team that is averaging just under 54 points a game. The 44 points against Island Trees tied the second-lowest output the team has had this season, eight more than the 36 they had in a loss at St. Anthony’s a week earlier.
Aksionoff believes a lot of the players’ numbers should be higher.
“It’s basically missing easy layups and short shots,” he said. “And that has to improve.”
The 61.7 points allowed is the second worst among the 17 ‘A’ teams.
The Mules faced Seaford again this week before the midterm break. The schedule doesn’t get easier after that with a home game against second-place North Shore on Jan. 26 followed by visits to Clarke and division-leading Friends Academy.
“We’ll tighten the belt,” Aksionoff said. “I’d like to believe that maybe we can get to the playoffs and then we’ll see how it goes.”