West Hempstead ousted by Roosevelt

The first round of the Nassau Class A boys’ basketball tournament featured plenty of upsets, although 14th-seeded West Hempstead was unable to join a long list of early Cinderella stories. The Rams ran into red-hot Roosevelt and suffered a season-ending 83-56 defeat on the road last Friday night.

“They had it all going,” West Hempstead head coach Ed Cosgrove said of the third-seeded Rough Riders, who got a game-high 30 points from Jordan Armstrong and advanced to face No. 11 Roslyn in this Friday’s quarterfinals. “They beat us with transition and from the outside,” he added. “It was our own fault they were able to push the ball up the floor. We battled, but we made some poor shot choices.”

Seniors Darius Francis (17 points) and Bobby Smith (15) led the offense for the Rams, who were outscored in all four quarters. “It was a fun atmosphere,” Cosgrove said. “Even when we were conference rivals, I enjoyed coming to this gym. The crowd is loud, although it’s usually hot and we had some players go down with cramps tonight.”

Francis kept the home crowd quiet in the early going, draining back-to-back treys to help the Rams bust out of the gate with an 8-4 lead. “Darius was real aggressive in his approach,” Cosgrove said. “I thought the first quarter would be important, and he kept our confidence up early.”

Roosevelt scored 16 of the next 21 points, including a buzzer-beating trey by Mitchell Davis, to take a 20-13 lead after one quarter. Senior Bryce Cohen gave the Rams (10-8 overall) a lift off the bench, nailing a pair of shots from behind the arc, but the Rough Riders caught fire in the second and led by 19 after Armstrong ripped off 11 straight points including a trio of treys.

“We knew we had to contain Armstrong, Young [Yusuf] and Canty [Terrell],” Cosgrove said. “Armstrong is a confident shooter at the wing and corner. We wanted to make him move around a little bit, but the way he was hitting it was just one of those nights where there wasn’t much we could’ve done.”

It didn’t help West Hempstead’s chances that senior Anthony Beaubrun, who averaged more than 16 points per game during the regular season, was slowed by a back injury and in foul trouble in the first half. He scored his only basket late in the second quarter to make it 41-28.

“Anthony hasn’t been practicing much,” Cosgrove explained. “He was trying to do things he could normally do when he’s healthy, but he was nowhere near 100 percent.”

Smith and Francis combined for all 12 of the Rams’ points in the third quarter, but Roosevelt was able to stretch its advantage to 56-40 heading into the fourth. Young had 15 points and 14 rebounds.

“We battled and played strong defense most of the season,” Cosgrove said. “We went 5-1 the first time around the conference and got back to the playoffs. That was a pretty good achievement.”