East Meadow earns playoff spot

Held scoreless for three periods, Jake Buchar dropped 10 of East Meadow’s 13 fourth-quarter points, hitting three jumpers and four free throws in the final two minutes last Friday to upend Hicksville, 47-43, and propel the Jets to the Nassau Class AA boy’s basketball postseason.

East Meadow (7-12) faced a win-or-go-home scenario and entered the fourth up five before Buchar, a 6-foot-5 senior center, started sinking shots that bounced earlier. 

“That really won the game for us,” head coach Bobby Kopp said of Buchar’s late game heroics that helped claim the No. 10 seed in the playoffs. 

East Meadow will tip off at No. 7 Calhoun in a first-round showdown at 5 p.m. this Friday. The Jets fell to the Colts, 76-71, at home in December. 

East Meadow’s postseason hopes hung by a sneaker string down the stretch. After winning 48-43 at Plainview-JFK to go 4-4 in Conference AA-II and poised to make a strong push for a playoff seed, the Jets lost consecutively to in-league rivals Port Washington, 49-37, Herricks, 53-44, and Baldwin, 66-44, before downing Hicksville.

Kopp said his players performed well enough at home against Port Washington and even Baldwin, despite the 18-point scoring differential versus the powerhouse program. Junior guard-forward Sultan Mizra had a team-high 11 points against Port Washington, but the Jets were unable to mount a comeback with just four points scored in the final period. Senior shooting guard Tyshyne Johnson sank three three-pointers and scored 19 points against Baldwin, but the Bruins played consistently better throughout. 

After playing what Kopp called their best game when hosting Herricks at mid-season, the Jets performed poorly in the rematch Feb. 3. While Johnson lead the squad with 14 points, none of his teammates tallied double-figure scoring. The Jets came within eight points of tying in the third period, but Herricks pulled away to a 22-point margin at the final buzzer. 

“That’s a team we beat by 30 the first time and should have beaten, but we just didn’t play well,” Kopp said of Herricks. “We just didn’t have the fire power in any of those games.”

But Buchar’s fiery play in the waning minutes against Hicksville turned the losing tide and extended the season, while his teammates made enough timely plays to keep the game tight throughout. Johnson nailed a three-pointer to put his team up by two at the end of the first half, and Mizra contributed 12 points. 

Kopp, in his second year as head coach after a 3-16 inaugural campaign, believes his team was able to earn a playoff berth by learning how to work better together rather than rely on an outstanding scorer who they lost in early January. 

“We always preach the team concept,” he said of his players and staff. 

Now, as the Jets turn their attention to Calhoun, he is evangelizing for more aggressive offensive play to survive for a second round. 

”In a nutshell,” he added, “we’ll have to continue to defend and rebound well, get some easy baskets and play with energy.”