On a night that was supposed to honor them, a couple of Malverne boys’ basketball seniors made sure their head coach got his accolades as well.
Lorenzo Maione had 10 assists and scored nine of his game-high 17 points during the Mules’ explosive third quarter and Jamar Smith added nine points as Malverne gave head coach Darrol Lopez his 350th career win in a 70-29 romp over Seaford on Senior Night last Friday.
Junior Julien Dumornay and sophomores Shane Lee and Isaiah Smith finished with eight points apiece and Spencer Sexton pulled down eight rebounds in his final regular season home contest for the Mules (12-7. 9-2 Conference A7), who never trailed while allowing the fewest points in a game this season.
The teams split the season series after Seaford (6-13, 5-6) posted a 55-52 win on its home court on Jan. 9.
Malverne led 11-7 after the first quarter and used an 11-2 run to start the second to begin pulling away. Isaiah Smith had four points during the run, which was sandwiched around four points from Dumornay and Maione’s 3-pointer. Seaford scored five straight points to cut the Malverne lead to 22-14, but baskets by Dumornay and Bryce McIntosh pushed the Mules’ lead back to 12 at intermission.
The Mules then dominated with a 26-7 third quarter, which was ignited by Maione’s steal off a Seaford inbound pass and he converted the ensuing layup to make it 28-14. Sexton’s basket off an offensive rebound, Lee’s layup, and a coast-to-coast basket by Jamar Smith off another steal increased the lead to 20.
Seaford scored five straight points, but Malverne answered with an 18-0 run to put the game well out of reach at 52-19. Maione hit consecutive 3-pointers and had seven points during the surge, Jamar Smith added another trey, and Isaiah Smith, Sexton, Lee, and Dumornay contributed field goals.
“The third quarter we blew it up,” Malverne associate coach Walter Aksionoff said. “A beautiful job.”
The 19-point differential was the greatest in any quarter for the Mules this season.
Eleven Malverne players scored points. The performance also capped off a memorable week for Maione, who drilled the game-winning 3-pointer with six seconds left in a 59-58 win over North Shore three days earlier.
“Lorenzo’s been like a pimple,” Aksionoff said. “He bothers the other team because he’s always in their face.”
Isaiah Smith also had a strong game on the boards with 11 rebounds.
It was the Mules’ third win in the last four contests, and they remained a game behind Friends Academy for first place in the conference. Both teams are playing their respective finales on Tuesday.
After the final buzzer, Lopez was congratulated publicly, and by the other coaches and game officials before his team formed a circle around him and jumped up and down in celebration.
“I’ve been with him for almost 300 of those games,” Aksionoff said. “But, with that being said, to see his family there and him [was nice]. And in retrospect, I was saying to D, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t book those hard teams for non-league games. You would be at 400 now.’”
