West Hempstead stumbles into playoffs

At the midway point of the 2016-17 basketball season, there was good reason to believe that West Hempstead would not only earn a berth in the Class A playoffs, but that it would pick up a decent seed and be a tough out. Just before the break, the team picked up a big win against Island Trees, and was starting to play with confidence.

By virtue of picking up six victories in league play, the Rams qualified for the postseason, but, unfortunately, the momentum they were riding didn’t carry over into the second half of the season. After losing its last two games, West Hempstead entered the playoffs with a 6-6 record in Conference A-IV play and was given the final seed in the field of 22.

The Rams were sent on the road to face No. 11 Cold Spring Harbor (17-2 overall, 12-2 in Conference ABC) this Wednesday, after press time, in the opening round of the playoffs. 

Head coach Ed Cosgrove believes his team underachieved during the regular season. “We go out and we compete with teams, but we have lapses where we don’t protect the ball, take poor shots, or simply lose our focus,” Cosgrove said. “The loss to Clarke was a big one. We could have gone into the playoffs winning three of the last four. We had to make the most of our possessions down the stretch, and we failed to do it.”

The loss Cosgrove was alluding to was a 61-60 overtime heartbreaker on West Hempstead’s home floor, last Saturday afternoon. Clarke, which came in having lost its past four contests, wasn’t the pushover it had been in the past.

The home team came out a bit flat and fell behind 36-25 at the half. However, West Hempstead found its game in the third quarter. Led by Christian Martinez and John Granholm, the Rams outscored Clarke 25-8 in the third quarter to take a 50-43 lead as the teams took the court for the final eight minutes.

“We laid into them pretty good at the half, and they responded by playing a great third quarter,” Cosgrove said. “But, in the fourth, it was as if they’d forgotten what we talked about. We went back to the old habits; turnovers and missed opportunities.”

After Clarke’s Austin Widing hit a three-pointer to tie the score at 55 with 25 seconds to play, the Rams had a couple chances to score, but missed a few bunnies in the waning seconds. Clarke, which got 20 points from Jimmy Posillico, took a 61-57 lead in the extra session with a little more than a minute to play and never relinquished the lead. Martinez led the Rams with 20 points.

Prior to the playoff game, Cosgrove was optimistic. “We’re going to go out there and battle,” Cosgrove said. “If we play hard and play smart, I feel like we can play with most of these teams.”