Conference title for North Shore

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A banner season for North Shore’s boys’ basketball program ended in disappointment Wednesday evening when it came up short against Lawrence in a Nassau Class A outbracket playoff game.
Don Smalls III poured in a game-high 22 points and Kanye Robinson added 12 points and 10 rebounds as Lawrence, the No. 21 seed in the 22-team tournament, emerged with a 45-42 road victory and avenged a pair of regular-season defeats to the Vikings in the process.
North Shore, the No. 12 seed coming off its first conference championship in 31 years, got 11 points apiece from senior David Berlin and junior Nicholas La Rosa.
“Everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong,” Vikings first-year head coach Ryan Berglin said. “It was a great season but a devastating loss. The kids accomplished a huge goal by winning a conference championship. We also wanted to be loud in the playoffs, but we missed too many layups.”
Berglin, a 2005 North Shore graduate and former hoopster who coached the JV squad for 10 years, said the biggest difference between the elimination game and both regular-season matchups was the Golden Tornadoes’ ability to protect the ball. “They really didn’t turn it over and we had eight turnovers in the first half that hurt,” Berglin said. “Smalls also hit three or four very tough shots where we were happy with our defense.”

Eleven days earlier, the Vikings (13-6 overall) clinched the Conference A-5 title with a 57-33 win over Lawrence on Senior Day. La Rosa had 18 points, sophomore Vasilis Triantafyllou 11, Berlin 9 and junior Ryan Freund 6. “That was probably our most complete game of the season,” Berglin said. “We hit nine three-pointers when we probably averaged three a game.”
The 6-foot-4 Berlin, who led the team in scoring (12.4 points per game), rebounding (8.7 per game), assists (4.5) and steals, earned All-County honors along with the 6-4 Triantafyllou (12 ppg.)
“David was basically our point-forward,” Berglin said. “Everything flowed through him. He attacked the basket and if a shot wasn’t there he had no problem kicking the ball out to a teammate. He was a three-year starter who’ll be missed.”
North Shore, which won 9 of 10 conference games and beat Lawrence by 15 in the first meeting, also needs to replace senior point guard Luke DiBenedetto, an All-Conference selection who played at a fast pace and always got the toughest backcourt defensive assignment. Freund, described by Berlin as its best on- and off-ball defender who does all the little things not found in a box score, and La Rosa, who averaged 10 points while providing strong two-way play around the rim, also earned All-Conference honors.
Key off the bench, Berglin noted, were senior defensive spark Dylan Kunkel and freshman offensive threat Lucas Schimsky. In the playoff defeat, Schimsky provided a spark with a pair of treys.